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ME HISTORY
OF
ECONOMICS
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J
WORKS ON ECONOMICS
BY THE AUTHOR
ELEMENTS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 1858.
A DICTIONARY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. Vol. L 1862.
THE PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICAL PHILOSOPHY.
Being the Second Edition of the " Elements." 2 vols. 1872-75.
LECTURES ON CREDIT AND BANKING. Delivered at the
request of the Council of the Institute of Bankers in Scotland. 1882.
The above works ewe out of print,
THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF BANKING. Two vols.
Fifth Edition. 1892-93. Vol. I., price I2J.; Vol. II., price 14J.
THE ELEMENTS OF ECONOMICS. Being the Third Edition
of the " Elements of Political Economy." Two vols. Price 7s. 6d*
each volume. 1881-86.
THE ELEMENTS OF BANKING. One vol. Twelfth Edition.
Price 3*. 6d. 1895.
ECONOMICS FOR BEGINNERS. One vol. Fifth Edition. Price
2s. 6d. 1895.
THE THEORY OF CREDIT. Two vols. Vol. I., second edition
price 10s. net. Vol. II., Part I., second edition, price ioj. net. Vol. II.,
Part II., price 10s. 6d. 1894.
BIMETALISM. One voL Price 5*. net. 1894. (
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THE HISTORY
OF
ECONOMICS
HENRY DUNNING MACLEOD, M,A.
OP TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND THE INNER TEMPLE
BARRISTBR-AT-LAW
Selected by the Royal Commissioners for the Digest of the Law to Prepare
the Digest of the Law of Bills, Notes, &c.
Honorary Member of the Juridical Society of Palermo, and of the
Sicilian Society of Political Economy
Corresponding Member of the Sociiti D* Economic Politique of Paris, and of the
Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation of Madrid
LONDON
BLISS, SANDS AND CO.
1896
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v^;u>
C bSW
PLYMOUTH
WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON
PRINTERS
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CONTENTS
Preliminary Remarks
PAGB
ix
i3oo* S.
ON THE NATURE AND HISTORY OF ECONOMICS
C^AP^R I.
On the Method of Investigation Proper to Economics.
$ i. Socrates discouraged the study of Physical Science
$ 2. Bacon proclaims the doctrine of the Continuity of Science
{ 3. He says that Natural Philosophy is the Mother of all Science
i 4. The Inductive Method applicable to Moral Science
§ 5. Physical Inductive Science must precede Moral Inductive Science
§ 6. Function of Logic .....
$ 7. Newton and Butler say the same . . .
$ 8. The Economists declared that there is a Natural Moral Science .
§ 9. Generally admitted that Physical Science is the true basis of all Science
$ 10. Self-contradiction of John Stuart Mill as to the method of Investigation
proper to Economics . . . ...
$ 1 f . He says that the Inductive is the true method to investigate Economics
} 12. Unanimous opinion that Economics is an Inductive Science
§ 13. Self-contradiction of Mill. He says that the & priori method is the
only proper one to investigate Economics . ...
1 14. Mill's assertion erroneous . . ...
f 15. Mill's reason for asserting that Economics is an d priori Science .
§ 16. Mill's arguments untenable . ...
$17. Argument from Feigned Cases ...
i 18. Experimental and Experiential Philosophy . ...
§ 19. The Principles of Inductive Logic applicable to Experiential Philosophy
$ 20. Economics admitted to be a Physical Science . ...
3
3
5
6
6
7
8
9
10
10
12
12
13
«4
16
17
18
18
19
19
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VI
Contents
CHAPTER II.
On the Nature of a Physical Science; and on the Formation
of General Concepts and Axioms.
PAGB
$ I. On the Nature of a Physical Sioence . . . 20
§ 2. Definition of a Physical Science . 20
§ 3. Mechanics . . . ... 20
§4. Chemistry . . ... 21
$ 5. Optics and Heat . . . ... 21
§ 6. Requisites of a Physical Science . . 21
§ 7. Meaning of a Physical Moral Science . 21
§ 8. Not capable of same perfection as Physical Science 22
§ 9. Which Moral Science approaches most nearly to a Physical Science 22
$ 10. How Economics may be made a Physical Science . . . 22
$ n. An Economic Quantity . . . ... 23
$12. Economic Quantities of divers natures . . 23
{13. Science consists of two parts — General Concepts and General Axioms . 24
§ 14. Relation between these and Reality . . ... 24
{15. Alleged distinction between minds in Science . 24
§ 16. The Formation of Concepts and Axioms subject to General Laws 25
§ 17. On the Formation of General Concepts . . 25
{ 18. On the Formation of General Axioms . . . 29
{19. On the Law of Continuity . . ... 32
$ 20. Plan of the Work . . ... 34
CHAPTER III.
History of Economics.
Erroneous notions as to the origin of the Science of Economics
The Theory of Money. ....
Foundation of Economics as a Science
The Economists .....
Outline of the Doctrine of the Economists
Doctrine of the Economists regarding Commerce or Exchanges
Meaning of the expression " Production, Distribution, and Consumption of
Wealth" .....
Definition of Wealth by ancient writers
Three Species of Wealth or Economic Quantities
35
36
40
41
43
45
47
51
52
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Contents
Vll
FACE
Demosthenes shows that Personal Credit is Wealth .
S3
The Roman and Greek Jurists show that Abstract Rights and Rights of
Action are Wealth • ...
54
Sketch of the History of the Theory of Credit • .
57
The Economists on Money • . • ...
58
The Economists on the Balance of Trade . . ...
61
The Economists on Productive Labour, and on Sterile or Unproductive
Labour .......
62
Dogma of the Economists that Labour and Credit are not to be admitted tc
>
be Wealth ......
• 63
The Economists founded a New Order of Sciences .
66
Reaction against the Economists — Condillac
68
Adam Smith ......
73
Free Trade on a Moral and Economical basis
75
Fallacy of Reciprocity and Retaliation
82
Adam Smith's Definition of Wealth ....
. 86
Smith classes Human Abilities or Labour as Wealth .
88
Smith admits that Rights are Wealth ....
. 88
Confusion of Smith on Value .....
92
Smith's chief merits ......
96
His chief defects ......
97
Ricardo .......
100
Whately .......
107
The Economics of Jean Baptiste Say and John Stuart Mill
in
System of J. B. Say .
'13
John Stuart Mill ......
120
Mill on Value ......
. 128
Reaction against the Economics of Jean Baptiste Say and John Stuart Mill
135
Frederic Bastiat ... ...
135
The Author .* .
139
Arthur Latham Perry :
154
Stanley Jevons ......
156
Economics is a Physical Science .....
161
On the best Name for the Science . .
164
Economics as a Liberal Science .....
166
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Vlll
Contents
13ook II.
THE FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS AND AXIOMS OF
ECONOMICS
Acceptation
PAGE
171
Goodwill
PACK
. 446
Accommodation Paper
179
Gresham's Law .
. 448
Annuity . . .
189
Assignable Instruments .
192
Interest
• 463
Issue
• 470
Bailment and Debt
193
Labour
Balance of Trade .
196
• 471
Bank . ...
200
Lend — Loan
• 479
Banking
205
Bill of Exchange .
222
Market Price of Gold and Silver 483
Bill of Lading .
225
Mint Price of Gold and Silver . 484
Money .
. 486
'Capital.
225
Cash Credit
246
Negative Quantities in Economics 501
Channel of Circulation
256
Negotiable Instruments
. 522
Cheque
259
Novation
• 524
Chose-in-Action .
260
Circulating Medium, or Currency 261
Patent .
. . 526
Clearing House .
293
Payment and Satisfaction
• S28
Coin . ...
298
Persona
• 531
Compensation
304
Pound ? What is a
• 533
Confusio
307
Practice
• 535
Consumption
308
4 Price .
• 536
Copyright
319
^ Production
• 539
Cost of Production
320
J Productive and Unproductive
Credit . ...
342
1 Labour
J Profit, Rate of .
• 545
Currency Principle
368
. . 556
Promissory Note .
. 564
Debt ...
370
v Property
• • i*5
Deposit
398
Depreciation and Diminution in
N Rent .
. 571
Value
402
Res
. 608
Discount
40S
Rights .
609
Distribution
407
Dock Warrant
407
Shares in Commercial Companies 619
Draft . ...
408
Tithes .
620
Estate . ...
409
Trade Secrets
. 621
Exchange
411
•Value .
621
Farm . ...
426
^Wealth.
Funds, The
426
. 670
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PRELIMINARY REMARKS
IF there be one set of men more than another to whom the
undying gratitude of mankind is pre-eminently due, it is that
illustrious band of thinkers in France, Italy, Great Britain, and
Spain, who during the last century founded the Science now usually
called Economics, and brought about that great revolution in
opinion which, after a long and arduous struggle, finally established
the doctrines of Free Trade in this country. Lord Macaulay
observes that the two greatest and most salutary social revolutions
which have taken place in England, were those which in the
thirteenth century put an end to the tyranny of nation over nation,
and which, some generations later, put an end to the property of
man in man ; but to these may be added a third— not less great, and
not less salutary- than the other two — that great revolution in the
ideas of the age, which abolished for ever the property of one set
of men in the industry of others.
But however deep the gratitude which is due to these immortal
thinkers, and however warmly we may acknowledge it, it is given to
no men, however illustrious, to arrest the progress of thought, and
to impose limits upon science. It is the sacred duty of those in
succeeding generations who would aspire to walk in their steps, to
sift and examine their doctrines by the light of further experience,
even as they examined the doctrines of their predecessors, and to
carry on the science from where they left it
It has thus happened that nearly every science has undergone a
complete transformation from the mode in which it was conceived
by its founders, and there is besides in every science a certain stage
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Preliminary Remarks
at which it becomes necessary to introduce more powerful and
refined methods of investigation, more comprehensive forms of
expression, and more minute and exact observations.
Highly as we may esteem the great Economists of this and other
countries, it is essential to remember the character of the great
Economical contests up to the present time. They have been
almost entirely destructive. The first Economists found the public
mind and the administration infected with an immense mass of
rooted prejudices, errors, and abuses. Their first efforts were,
therefore, naturally directed to sweep these away; to beat down
and abolish false doctrines of all sorts; to extirpate bad and
mischievous laws interfering with the natural order of things;
to abolish legislative interference with wages, with prices, with the
interest of money, and with the commercial intercourse of nations ;
to establish, in fact, freedom of contract and exchange. And in
this Economists of all nations are agreed.
The repeal of the Corn and Navigation Laws in England may be
regarded as the consummation of the destructive era of Economical
Science in this country. We have now arrived at a new and
distinct phase of the Science ; that, in fact, at which the period
of destruction has ended, and that of construction has come.
With that great practical work before them, which it required
three-quarters of a century to accomplish in this country, it is not
very surprising that Economists have not hitherto given any very
close attention to settle the exact foundations of the Science. The
early treatises are filled with long controversies and discussions,
which, though indispensably necessary at that time, may now be
dismissed in a few lines.
But while Economists of all schools are agreed on what was the
destructive portion of their Science, when we come to the positive,
or constructive, Science, this agreement is at an end. C Nothing can
be more lamentable or astonishing than the differences of doctrine
and the antagonism of Economists on almost every point in the
Science, so as to create a widely-spread impression that there is no
such intelligible Science at all as Economics. 7
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Preliminary Remarks xi
It is well known that/each of the physical sciencesjwhich have
attained such magnitude and extent in modern times, and which
have produced such admirable results, [have been brought to their
present state of perfection by extraordinary labour having been */
bestowed in ascertaining and settling their first elements, namely, -
their definitions and axioms, or accurate conceptions and expressions
of the objects they treat about, and the general laws which regulate
their relations to each othenj
But it has not always been so. These wonderful sciences were
once in a very different state. The modern plan of teaching a
science only in its existing state, no doubt imparts a vast amount of
actual knowledge. But as a mental discipline, or as a matter of
education, the History of Science is of enormous value, and, we
venture to say, is far too much neglected.
Many persons can acquire a considerable amount of actual know-
ledge, and yet derive but little benefit from it But to study the
History of Ideas on the subject, to understand clearly the principles
of the different controversies which have been waged, to com-
prehend why one set of ideas prevailed over another, is an
educational exercise of immense utility, which is almost entirely
neglected. Few persons are aware of the wrecks of the fierce
controversies which lie buried beneath the calm and placid surface
of modern Science, like those of mighty armaments beneath the
summer sea.
Many persons are apt to think that controversies in Economics
axe mere logomachy, vain and unprofitable disputes about words,
and of no real consequence. They are apt to think that the
Physical Sciences treat about things, and Economics only about
words, but those who think so display a total want of knowledge of
the History of Science. The early history of all sciences is full of
controversies about the meaning of words. Many may think that
Physical Science being about things, there is no difficulty in giving a
name to what is seen so readily. This is a lamentable error. On
the contrary, it almost invariably happens that names get into a
science, and acquire a position in it, before anyone can give an
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xii Preliminary Remarks
exact definition of their meaning. Thus the words Momentum, Vis
Viva, Uniform Force, Accelerating Force, and several others acquired
a position in Mechanics before anyone could tell what they really
meant, and all the philosophical world of the day was engaged in
the wordy war to settle their meaning, and obtain true definitions :
consequently, it is an entire error to suppose that controversies in
Physical Science are not about words. On the contrary, it was in
the true definitions of words that the whole foundations of the
sciences were laid, and it was just because all the great mathema-
ticians of the day so thoroughly understood the supreme importance
of ascertaining the true meaning of words, and fought out the
meaning of each separate term with such perseverance, that they at
length arrived at such an unanimity of agreement, and these contro-
versies have now been almost forgotten. There was a time, then,
when what are called ,the exact sciences had not attained that rank.
They were once matters of opinion, and not of demonstration, and
they only attained the rank of demonstrative truth, because each
separate word and each separate principle was thoroughly discussed
and settled.
\2 And why has Economics not yet attained the same rank as
Mechanics as an exact Science? Because the same care has never
yet been given to settle its definitions and axioms^} Economics is
now like Mechanics in its early stages, overrun and infested with
words whose meaning has never yet been settled on certain prin-
ciples, and which are never almost used by any two writers in the
same sense — nay, even none of the most popular writers are con-
sistent with themselves. The men who have cultivated Economics
are probably of as great natural ability as those who have cultivated
Physical Science, of course with the exception of a few unapproach-
able examples. Why, then, have they not come to the same
unanimity of opinion as their brethren ? The simple reason is that
they have not adopted the only means which could by any possi-
bility ensure success, namely, a thorough discussion and settlement
of the meaning of words. Nay, they have systematically despised
it. Now what the words Momentum, Vis Viva, &c, were to
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Preliminary Remarks xiii
Mechanics in its early stages, that Wealth, Value, Currency, Credit,
Capital, &c, are at the present day to Economics.
And it is for this very reason that many suppose that Economics
cannot be made an exact Science, because the only means by which
it can be made so have been systematically neglected Many
suppose that there is no need for such a thing : matters will go on
just the same, they think, for all the disputes. But the same may
be said of Physical Science. A man may be an excellent seaman,
and yet be entirely ignorant of the mechanical principles which
govern the progress of his ship. But is there no use in the
Science of Mechanics? So, doubtless, a man may be an excellent
practical banker, and a very successful merchant, without any
knowledge of Economics : and yet is there no use in the Science
of Economics?
Now Economics is based upon certain fundamental concepts or
definitions, and axioms or general laws, just as Mechanics is, and
by settling these with as great care as is done in Physical Science,
it may be raised to the rank of an exact Science. And yet there
are writers— of no mean acquirements, too — who entirely discourage
such a course of proceeding; who consider such attempts as
pedantic, and mere waste of time ; who would admit that in every
other branch of human knowledge clear and precise technical terms
are absolutely indispensable; and yet, in Economics alone, think
that there is no need of anything of the sort.
Besides the nature and extent of the Science itself, and the
method of investigation proper to it, the fundamental concepts are
Wealth, Value, Credit, Capital, Production, Consumption, Currency,
Money, Price, and many others. It might naturally have been
expected that, as these terms are means by which discussions
are carried on, Economists would have been agreed upon all
of them.
On the contrary, there is no agreement among Economists upon
any one of them. They are entirely at variance with each other, not
only as to the nature and extent of the Science, but even as to the
method of investigation proper to it No Economist has, hitherto,
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xiv Preliminary Remarks
attempted to fix the fundamental concepts of Economics on sure
and certain scientific principles, as those of Mechanics have been
done. Excellent as are many of their refutations of previous errors,
they have never yet made any attempt to give an exposition of the
facts of the Science to form the foundation of a theory. Now, as
the phenomena of Economics are all produced by the actions of
men, if the same care were taken to ascertain these facts and to
express their relations in the same accurate and generalised
language as is done with regard to those of Physical Science,
Economics might be made a science as certain as any Physical
Science.
The first thing, then, that is wanted, is to introduce into the
Science the spirit of true Generalisation — the generalisation of its
fundamental concepts, and the generalisation of its axioms or
its general principles, by the acknowledged canons of Inductive
Logic.
When Galileo began to study Natural Philosophy, he put aside
Mathematics, not thinking that there could be any connection
between the two — a sentiment which appears, too, in Bacon.
Many persons at the present day think that there is no connection
between Economics and Natural Philosophy. They are in just as
great an error as Galileo and Bacon were. Economics is a science
of causes and effects numerically measured, produced by the
properties of men, and its types and standards of reasoning are
to be found in the sciences which treat of the causes and effects
produced by the properties of material substances. In both equally
the Inductive Logic reigns supreme. The same general method of
investigation is common to both, and there is the same hope and
encouragement to expect success that the Athenian orator gave to
his countrymen because their failure arose, not from the nature
of the thing, but from their own errors. So it is with Economics.
The lamentable state in which it is at present does not arise from
the nature of the Science itself, but from its method of treatment.
By paying the same attention as Physicists have done to obtain
true concepts and axioms from reality itself by proper methods, and
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Preliminary Remarks xv
not by arbitrary dogmatism ; by proceeding step by step, definition
by definition, axiom by axiom, principle by principle, in due and
proper order; by maintaining a proper unity of conception and
principle from the beginning to the end, it will be found that a
vast and magnificent edifice of Demonstrative science may be
built np. Economics will emerge from the turbid regions of con-
troversy as clear and precise, as sharply defined, and as capable of
being erected into an exact science, as any other whatever; it will
attain a grandeur, a precision, and a compass never yet thought of.
A new Inductive Science, the connecting link between Physical and
Moral Science, will be created, and a new monument raised to the
everlasting glory of the Monarch of Philosophy.
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Book I.
ON THE NATURE AND HISTORY OF ECONOMICS
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<5fc©E Ui
*^ OF THE
[UNIVERSITY]
CALIFORNIA
CHAPTER I.
ON THE METHOD OF INVESTIGATION PROPER TO
ECONOMICS.
Socrates — Bacon — J. B. Say — J. S. Mill.
Bacon proclaims the Doctrine of the Continuity of Science.
i. When the greatest Moral Philosopher of antiquity attempted
to master the Physical Science of his day, he found that it was
a mere chaos of confusion, a mass of baseless dogmatising and vain
speculation. He called off his disciples in blank despair from such
unpro6table labour, and bade them devote themselves to the study
of Moral Science, which was within their comprehension, and to
learn just so much of Natural Science as to know when to sow, and
to reap, and to sail. Nay, he considered those who engaged in such
objects of contemplation as wanting in good sense. He used to
inquire whether such persons thought they already knew enough
of human affairs before they proceeded to such subjects of medita-
tion. He thought that men could never come to a satisfactory
conclusion on such points, because those who most prided themselves
on their knowledge were altogether at variance with each other.
He asked whether those even who studied celestial phenomena, and
discovered the laws which governed all things, fancied they would
be able to produce, at their pleasure, wind, rain, changes of the
seasons, as men who have learnt mechanical arts can produce what
they want. As for himself, he would abandon all such vain
speculations, which could never have any practical utility, and turn
his attention entirely to moral and civil philosophy, and all things
which concerned mankind. Thus Physical and Moral Science were
utterly divorced in ancient times, and for twenty centuries it was
supposed that there was no connection between them.
2. But our Bacon, greatly wiser — and for this he has never
received the thousandth part of the credit that is due to him — had
the marvellous sagacity to perceive that in Natural Science are to be
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4 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. l
found the types and standards of reasoning which are to guide us in
Moral and Political Science. He inculcates the study of Physical
Science, it is true, for its own sake, but not for its own sake only,
but as the foundation of Moral Science. It is his transcendant
merit to have perceived and proclaimed with the voice of a trumpet
the grand doctrine of the continuity of the Sciences. And we must
be the more earnest in defending the just title of Bacon to this
glorious discovery, because the admirers of Auguste Comte have
claimed for him the originality of the idea. But we shall shew
abundantly that Bacon was the true discoverer of the doctrine.
With Physical Science not in a very much better state than it was in
the days of Socrates, Bacon not only did not discountenance it, but
he had the miraculous sagacity to perceive that the way to true and
certain reasoning in Moral Science lay through Physical Science.
He complains bitterly of the mutual damage to the Sciences by their
separation, and the neglect of Natural Philosophy as the great
nursing mother of them all. "And it is a matter of common
discourse of the chain of sciences, how they are linked together, in-
somuch as the Greeks, who had terms at will, have fitted it of a
name of circle-learning. Nevertheless, I that hold it for a great
impediment to the advancement and further invention of knowledge
that particular arts and sciences have been disincorporated from
general knowledge, do not understand one and the same thing,
which Cicero's discourse and the note and conceit of the Grecians in
their word circle-learning do intend. For I mean not that use which
one science hath of another for ornament or help in practice, as the
orator hath of knowledge of affections for moving, or as military-
science may have use of geometry for fortifications ; but I mean it
directly, of that use by way of supply of light and information, which
the particulars and instances of one science do yield and present for
the framing or correcting of the axioms of another science in their
very truth and notions. And therefore that example of oculists and
title lawyers doth come nearer to my conceit than the other two :
for sciences distinguished have a dependence or universal knowledge
to be augmented and rectified by the superior light thereof, as well
as the parts and members of a science have upon the maxims of the
same science, and the mutual light and consent which one part
receiveth from another And these are no allusions, but
direct communities, the same delights of the mind being to be found
not only in music, rhetoric, but in Moral Philosophy, policy, and
other knowledges, and that obscure in the one which is more
apparent in the other ; yea, and that discovered in the one which is-
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Ch. L] On the Method of Investigation 5
not found at all in the other ; and so one science greatly aiding to
the invention and augmentation of the other. And therefore with-
out this intercourse the axioms of the sciences will fall out to be
neither full nor true." l
3. Again, after shewing that one cause of the backward state
of the sciences was the short period during which they had been
studied, he says — " In the second place there presents itself that
cause of great weight in every way, namely, that during those very
ages in which the genius and learning of men have chiefly flourished,
Natural Philosophy obtained the least part of human labour. And
nevertheless this very thing ought to be held to be the great Mother
of Sciences. For all arts and sciences if torn from this root, though
perhaps they may be polished, and made fit for use, yet they will
make no further progress And the age during which Natural
Philosophy was seen to flourish in Greece, was but a very brief in-
terval of time, for both in the more ancient times, the seven who
were called the wise men, all except Thales, applied themselves to
Moral Philosophy and civil affairs, and in later times when Socrates
drew down philosophy from heaven to earth, Moral Philosophy
prevailed more and more, and turned the minds of men from the
Philosophy of Nature. " 2 So again — " To this it is to be added that
Natural Philosophy, even among those very men, who have nurtured
it, has scarcely ever obtained the whole leisure and employment
of any one, especially in these later times; except perhaps some
instances of a monk in his cell, or a gentleman speculating in his
country house. But the Philosophy of Nature has been made as it
were a passage and a bridge to something else. And so this great
Mother of the Sciences has been with wonderful indignity thrust
down to the office of a handmaid Meanwhile let no one
expect much progress in the sciences (especially in the practical
part of them) unless Natural Philosophy be applied to each
individual science, and each particular science be referred again to
Natural Philosophy. Hence it is that astronomy, optics, music,
most of the mechanical arts, medicine itself, and — what one might
more wonder at — Moral and Political Philosophy, logical
sciences have scarcely any depth, but only glide over the surface of
a multitude of things, because, after these separate sciences have
been once distributed and erected, they are no longer nourished by
Natural Philosophy. Therefore it is not the least strange if sciences
make no progress when they are torn from their roots." 3
1 Valerius Terminus, c. 8. 3 Nov. Org. bk. i. aph. 79.
3 Nov. Org. bk. i. aph. 80.
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6 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
4. So also — " And here it may be repeated what was said above,
about the application of Natural Philosophy, and that each separate
science must be referred to that again, that the sciences may not be
severed and cut off from the trunk. For without this little progress
is to be hoped for."1 And again — "Some, too, may doubt rather
than object, whether we speak of Natural Philosophy only, or that
the other sciences, logic, ethics, politics, are also to be brought to
perfection by the same method. But most assuredly we mean what
we said to apply to them all ; and as the common logic which acts
by syllogism affects not only the natural, but all sciences, so also
ours which proceeds by induction, embraces them all. For we form
a history, and tables of discovery of anger, fear, shame, and the like,
also of examples in Politics, so also of affections of the mind, &c" 2
So again — "Let us now come to that knowledge to which the
oracle of old leads us — namely, the knowledge of ourselves, upon
which, as it touches us the more nearly, the more diligence is to be
bestowed. This knowledge is for men, the aim and the object of all
knowledges, but it is only a portion of Nature. And let this be laid
down as a general rule, that all divisions of sciences be so understood
and applied that they may rather mark and distinguish them, than
separate and divide them, so that we may always avoid a break
of continuity in the sciences. For the contrary mode has made
each separate science barren, empty, and erroneous, since they were
not- nourished, supported, and corrected by the common fountain
and aliment."3 — "We have laid down that this is the function of
Natural Philosophy, to be the common mother of the sciences." 4
5. It was, then, the matchless and undivided merit of Bacon to
discover that the same great fundamental principles of reasoning
govern all departments of human knowledge, and that general
principles of Logic govern particular sciences with a higher authority
than belong to these particular sciences. It has long been observed
that the genius of the Platonic Philosophy is essentially Inductive.
Only Plato applied the Inductive method to the ideas of the Moral
world; Bacon in the first instance to those of the Physical world.
But the genius of the Philosophy of each is identical. The sublime
discovery of Bacon was that Physical Inductive Science must
precede Moral Inductive Science: that Natural Science is the
nursing mother of all science, and that in it are to be found the
types and standards of reasoning to which all other reasoning is to
be referred ; that it is the iraiSayuyos to lead us to the study of Moral
1 Nov. Org. bk. i. aph. 107. * Nov. Org. bk. i. aph. 127.
* De Augmentis, lib. i. c. 1. 4 De Augm. lib. iii. c. 4.
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Ch. I.] On the Method of Investigation 7
Science. He proclaimed the union between Ideas and Reality,
to which nothing earthly was comparable, which was the sole hope
of attaining true science, and in consequence of the divorce between
them, the whole fabric of human knowledge as then existing was
like some magnificent structure without any foundations.
6. It has indeed been the fashion of some writers, lately,
systematically to depreciate the merits of Bacon, and some almost
seem to go the length of denying him any merit at all, because it
cannot be shown that the Novum Organum had any direct influence
on the progress of physical discovery. He made no discovery
himself, and the progress of physical science would have been just
as great if he had never written. Even if these assertions were
true, it would not in the least diminish the lustre of that work. No
one can fairly appreciate the merit of that work who is not well
acquainted with the absurdity of the grounds upon which the
established opinions of his day rested. Bacon saw through this,
and discovered the weakness of the grounds of the current belief
with a clearness and penetration truly surprising. One reason,
perhaps, why he may not have received his due share of credit is,
that he overrated the power of his Logic ; and supposed that by
its means discoveries could be made, so that almost all minds could
be brought nearly to the same level, and make discoveries as equally
as they could draw circles by compasses. That he entirely failed in
this is true, and it is probable that his failure in that instance has
had some effect in making his real merits less thought of than they
deserve. But he failed in this instance by not observing his own
rules. For he has laid down that the conceptions of a science are
to be framed with exactly the same care as the axioms, or general
principles. And he fell into exactly the same error himself as he
charged upon the Aristotelians, namely, considering Logic as an
instrument of discovery. Whereas the fundamental conception of
Logic is not the science of discovering truth, but the science of
judging whether or not certain alleged discoveries are true. Logic
is the science of Judgment, and not an art of discovery, nor even an
art of reasoning. The faculty of proposing notions, or ideas, or
laws, or reasons, belongs to the Imagination or the Invention; but
all these ideas, conceptions, or laws, must be submitted to the
tribunal of the Reason, or Logic, before they can be finally admitted
to be true. And it is the province of Logic to discover and apply
the tests which any conception, or axiom, must satisfy before it can
be admitted to be true. Cicero has described once, and for ever,
the true function of Logic. — "In hdc arte, si modo est hcec ars,
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8 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk.'i.
nullum est prcceptum quo modo verum inveniatur, sed tantum est quo
modo Judicetur."1 When, therefore, we separate what falls within
the limits of this conception from what transgresses it; when we
consider that in his day there was not a single science from which he
could draw his observations, there is no candid mind but must be
astonished at his penetration and sagacity in anticipating and
constructing the Science of Sciences. For the Novum Organum is
not the science or the art of discovery, but it is the Theory of
Theorizing^ or the Theory of Generalization : it is the science and the
art of judging and deciding whether the conceptions and the axioms
of the various sciences are true. Bacon did something far higher
than creating any single science; he created the science op
creating sciences. No one can dispute the merit of Aristotle in
discovering the syllogistic mode of reasoning, nor can blame him
because his injudicious followers pushed it far beyond what he ever
intended. But Aristotle founded his system inductively : he framed
it by observing what examples of reasoning were acknowledged to
be valid by common consent Bacon founded his system d priori^
with no single instance of an Inductive Science in existence. He
made no claim to have created a science, but only to have
proclaimed the only true method by which a science could be created.
And though no doubt additions have been made to Inductive Logic
in modern times, yet the amount of success he achieved is truly
marvellous. By a curious whim of fortune, the chief of the school
of d. priori reasoners founded his system inductively : the chief of
the school of Inductive Logic founded his system & priori.
7. And this great discovery, first seen and proclaimed by Bacon,
has been repeatedly enforced by the most eminent men since.
Thus, Newton says that an extension of our knowledge of the laws
of Natural Philosophy would certainly extend our knowledge of the
laws of Moral Philosophy. So Bishop Butler says — "There is much
more exact correspondence between the natural and the moral world
than we are apt to take notice of.'1 And the most celebrated
metaphysical writers of the last century held the same doctrine.
8. The earliest school of Economists in modern times acknow-
ledged the same principles. Seeing, as is explained in a subsequent
section, the intolerable misery under which their country groaned, a
few righteous and generous philosophers struck out the idea that
there must be some natural science, some principles of eternal truth,
with regard to the social relations of mankind, the violation of which
was the cause of that hideous misery which afflicted their native
1 De Oratore, ii. 38.
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Ch. i.] On the Method of Investigation 9
land. Although they did not in all respects succeed, and were
somewhat hasty in laying down general principles, so that in fact
they gave their philosophy too much the air of & priori dogmatism,
they nevertheless acknowledged the doctrine that there is a Natural
Moral Science, whence they were called Physiocrates. But this
doctrine was proclaimed with much more earnestness and effect by
J. B. Say, the French Economist, who however had read Bacon with
such extraordinary carelessness as to say — :" The Chancellor Bacon,
who was the first to teach that to understand the processes of Nature
we must consult, not the writings of Aristotle, but Nature herself, by
judicious observations and well-contrived experiments, was entirely
ignorant that the same method was applicable to moral and political
sciences, and that it would obtain the same success in them ll"1
Passing over, however, this extraordinary statement, he says : — " In
Political Economy, as in Physics, and in everything else, men have
made systems before establishing truths; that is, they have published
as truth unfounded conceptions and pure assertions. Afterwards
they applied to this science the methods which have contributed so
much, since the time of Bacon, to the progress of all the others,
that is, the method of experiment, which essentially consists in not
admitting as true anything of which observation and experience
have not proved the reality, and as general truths only such
conclusions as naturally flow from them. This entirely excludes
those prejudices and those authorities which in science, as in morals,
in literature, and in government, intrude themselves between
man and the truth."2 Again — "The manner how things are and
how they happen constitute what is called the nature of things, and
exact observation of the nature of things is the only foundation of
all truth. Thence spring, too, different kinds of sciences : sciences
which may be called descriptive, which consist in naming and
classifying objects, like Botany and Natural History. Then the
Experimental Sciences, which teach us the reciprocal actions which
things exercise upon each other, or, in other words, the connection
between effects and their causes, such as Physics and Chemistry.
These last require that we should study the very nature of things,
because it is by virtue of their nature that they act and produce
their effects : it is because it is the nature of the sun to be luminous,
and of the moon to be opaque, that when the moon passes before
the sun the latter is eclipsed. A careful analysis sometimes is
enough to inform us of the nature of a thing : sometimes it is only
1 Cours <V iconomie politique ', vol. ii. p. 550.
2 Trait** (? honomie politique. Di scours
Google
io On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
clearly made known to us by its effects ; and when we cannot devise
experiments on purpose, observation is in every case necessary to
confirm what analysis can teach us.
"These principles which have guided me will assist me to
distinguish two sciences which have been almost always confounded
— Political Economy, which is an experimental science^ and Statistics,
which is only a descriptive science.
"Political Economy, as it is studied at present, is entirely founded
on facts : because the nature of things is a fact, as well as the result
which flows from it. . . . Political Economy is established on
impregnable foundations as soon as its fundamental principles are
rigorous deductions from general undoubted facts."
9. We have now, we think, offered ample evidence to shew that
the great doctrine discovered and proclaimed by Bacon, that
Physical Science is the true basis of all science, was admitted and
acknowledged to be true by a long line of illustrious men, and
among others by the cultivators of the new science which was rising
into existence — Political Economy. How far they succeeded in
realizing this conception is quite another matter. The great point
was that the principle was admitted, and carried within itself the
method of judging and correcting any special errors that might be
made in any particular science.
Self-contradiction of John Stuart Mill as to the Method
of Investigation proper to Economics.
I. — Mill says that the Inductive is the only proper Method
to investigate Economics.
10. The doctrine, then, that the same spirit of philosophizing is
common to physical and moral science, had now become one of
the recognised dogmas of Philosophy. We need not quote others,
but we may observe that Mill follows exactly the same strain as the
preceding writers. He says — "The backward state of the Moral
Sciences can only be remedied by applying to them the methods of
Physical Science duly extended and generalized."1 And again —
" In scientific investigation, as in all other works of human skill, the
way of attaining the end is seen, as it were instinctively, by superior
minds, in some comparatively simple case, and is then, by judicious
generalization, adapted to the variety of complex cases. We learn
to do a thing in difficult circumstances by attending to the manner
in which we have spontaneously done the same thing in easy ones.
1 Logic, book vi. Table of Contents.
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Ch. I.] On the Method of Investigation 1 1
''This truth is exemplified by the history of the various branches
of knowledge which have successively, in the ascending order of
their complication, assumed the character of sciences, and will
doubtless receive fresh confirmation from those of which the scien-
tific constitution is yet to come, and which are still abandoned to the
uncertainties of vague and popular discussion. Although several
other sciences have emerged from this state, at a comparatively
recent date, none now remain in it, except those which relate to
man himself, the most complex and most difficult subject of study,
on which the human mind can be engaged.
" Concerning the Physical nature of man as an organized being —
though there is still much uncertainty and much controversy, which
can only terminate by the general acknowledgment and employment
of stricter rules of Induction than are commonly recognized, there is,
however, a considerable body of truths, which all who have attended
to the subject consider to be fully established : nor is there now any
radical imperfection in the method observed in this department of
science, by its most distinguished modern teachers. But the laws of
Mind, and even in a greater degree those of Society, are so far from
having attained a similar state of even partial recognition, that it is
still a controversy whether they are capable of becoming subjects
of science in the strict sense of the term ; and among those who
are agreed upon this point, there reigns the most irreconcileable
diversity on almost every other. Here, therefore, if anywhere, the
principles laid down in the preceding Books may be expected to be
useful.
"If on matters so much the most important with which the
human intellect can occupy itself, a more general agreement is ever
to exist among thinkers ; if what has been pronounced the ' proper
study of mankind,' is not destined to remain the only subject which
philosophy cannot succeed in rescuing from empiricism — the same
processes, through which the laws of many simple phenomena have
by general acknowledgment been placed beyond dispute, must be
consciously and deliberately applied to these more difficult inquiries.
If there are some subjects on which the results obtained have
finally received the unanimous assent of all who have attended
to the proof, and others on which mankind have not yet been
equally successful; on which the most sagacious minds have
occupied themselves from the earliest date, and have never
succeeded in establishing any considerable body of truths, so as
to be beyond denial or doubt; it is by generalizing the methods
successfully followed in the former inquiries and adapting them
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12 Oft the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
to the latter, that we may hope to remove this blot in the face
of Science/ l
ii. In another place Mill has given a more particular exemplifi-
cation of the analogy between Natural and Moral Science —
" Although the scientific arrangements of organic matter affords as
yet the only complete example of the true principles of rational
classification, whether as to the formation of groups or of series,
these principles are applicable to all cases in which mankind are
called upon to bring the various parts of any extensive subject into
mental co-ordination. They are as much to the point when objects
are to be classed for purposes of art or business as for those of
science. The proper arrangement, for example, of a code of laws,
depends on the same scientific conditions as the classifications in
Natural History, nor could there be a better preparatory discipline
for that important function than the study of the principles of a
natural arrangement, not only in the abstract but in their actual
application to the class of phenomena for which they were first
elaborated, and which are still the best school for learning their
use."2 And again — "These aberrations in medical theory have
their exact parallel in politics.,, 8
12. Here, at last, we might hope that we had attained a solid
foundation. jJThe preceding extracts contain as explicit and distinct
an acknowledgment as it is possible for language to do, that in
Mill's opinion the Science of Society — of which Political Economy
is one branch — is to be investigated by methods exactly analogous
to those which have already been adopted, and led to such distin-
guished success in Physical Science^ and that the only hope of
raising Social Science to the rank of a Demonstrative Science is by
doing so. And when Bacon, Newton, Butler, Locke, J. B. Say,
Herschell, and Mill are unanimous that Economic Science, as one
of the Moral Sciences, is an Inductive Science, we might hope that
the question as to the method of investigation proper to it was
finally set at rest. We might naturally expect that Mill, who at
one time was a disciple of Comte's, and who on this point so clearly
maintained the same doctrine, would at last exemplify the doctrine
in practice, and give us a treatise on Political Economy, really
framed after the manner of a* Physical Science, consciously and
deliberately.
1 Logic, bk. iv. c 8, §5. 9 Logic, bk. v. c. 6, §5.
8 Logic, bk. vi. c. I.
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Ch. I.] On the Method of Investigation 13
II. — Mill says the a priori is the only proper Method to investigate
Economics.
13. What, then, is our astonishment to read: — "With the con-
sideration of the definition of a science is inseparably connected that
of the philosophic method of the science ; the nature of the process
by which its investigations are to be carried on, its truths to be
arrived at
"Now, in whatever science there are systematic differences of
opinion — which is as much as to say in all the Moral or Mental
Sciences, and in Political Economy among the rest; in whatever
science there exist, among those who have attended to the subject,
what are commonly called differences of principle, as distinguished
from differences of matter of fact, or detail — the cause will be found
to be a difference in their conceptions of the philosophic method of
the sciences." l Also : — " In the definition we have attempted to
frame of the Science of Political Economy, we have characterised it
as assentially an abstract science, and its method as the method a
priori. Such is undoubtedly its character as it has been understood
and taught by all its most distinguished teachers. It reasons, and
as we contend it must necessarily reason, from assumptions, not from
facts. It is built upon hypotheses, strictly analogous to those which,
under the name of definitions, are the foundations of the other
abstract sciences." 2 Again : — " This ought not to be denied by the
Political Economist. If he deny it, then, and then only, he places
himself in the wrong. The a priori method which is laid to his
charge, as if his employment of it proved his whole science to be
worthless, is, as we shall presently shew, the only method by which
any truth can possibly be attained in any department of the Social
Science !!"s Also: — "But we go farther than to affirm that the
method a* priori is a legitimate mode of philosophical investigation
in the Moral Sciences — we contend that it is the only mode. We
affirm that the method a posteriori, or that of specific experience, is
altogether inefficacious in these sciences as a means of arriving
at any considerable body of valuable truth; though it admits of
being usually applied in aid of the method d priori, and even forms
an indispensable supplement to it." J
14. Now, we simply place these extracts before our readers, and
ask — Is it not astonishing that they should proceed from the same
writer, who enjoys a reputation as a logician?
1 Essays upon some unsettled questions of Political Economy t p. 141.
2 Ibid. p. 143. 8 Ibid. p. 145. 4 Ibid. p. 146.
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14 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
"Can such things be,
And overcome us like a summer's cloud,
Without our special wonder ? "
We shall postpone the consideration of the reasons alleged by
Mill for maintaining this extraordinary doctrine, so plainly contra-
dictory to what he himself had set forth in the previous extracts,
until we have examined his assertion as to a matter of fact He
asserts that ail the most distinguished Economists have treated it as
an & priori science. We have already shewn that this assertion is
utterly contrary to fact J. B. Say, as we have shewn, expressly
declares it to be an experimental science, and says that it is entirely
founded on facts, and so far from sanctioning the d priori method of
treating Political Economy, he expressly condemns those who do so.
He says : — " Other considerations not less delicate relate to what
precedes. Some writers of the eighteenth century, and of the dog-
matic school of Quesnay, as well the English Economists of the
school of David Ricardo, without employing algebraical formulae
evidently inapplicable to Political Economy, have wished to intro-
duce into it a kind of reasoning, which as a general rule all sciences
reject, which acknowledge no foundations but experience, I mean
reasoning which rests on abstractions When we admit as a
basis, instead of a well-observed fact, a principle which is only
founded on disputation, we are in danger of imitating the schoolmen
of the Middle Ages, who disputed about words instead of discussing
facts, and who proved to be quite beside the truth." 1 And he gives
instances where he considers, and in one at least justly, Ricardo and
McCulloch to have fallen into error by adopting this method, and
he dwells on the mischief produced in the Science by adopting this
method. Speaking of Quesnay, he says: — "Instead of first observing
the nature of things — namely, the way in which things really happen,
classifying observations and educing general principles from them —
they began by laying down abstract generalities, which they called
Axioms, and which they taught were absolutely self-evident. They
then tried to bring particular facts into accord with them, and
deduced rules from them. This entangled them in the defence of
maxims evidently contrary to good sense, and to the experience of
ages."2 While fully acknowledging their excellence as men, and also
the real services they performed to the State, he says: — "But, on the
other hand, the Economists did harm by decrying several useful
maxims, by making it be thought by their sectarian spirit, by the
dogmatic and abstract language of most of their writings, by their
1 Traite cCiconomic politique ', p. 15. 2 Ibid, p. 24.
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Chap. I.] On the Method of Investigation 15
oracular tone, that all those who employed themselves in such
researches were only dreamers, whose theories, however good they
might seem in books, were inapplicable in practice."8 He then
points out that Adam Smith pursued exactly the opposite method —
namely, the inductive method of educing principles from facts : —
41 When we read Smith as he deserves to be read, we perceive that
there was no Political Economy before him." Again: — "Before
Smith many true laws had been brought forward. He was the first
to shew why they were true. He did more : he has given the true
method of pointing out errors : he has applied to Political Economy
the new method of treating the Sciences, in not searching out their
principles abstractedly, but in going to facts most constantly ob-
served, to the general laws of which they are a consequence. As
soon as a fact may have a cause, the spirit ofsystem decides that it is
the cause. The analytical spirit wishes to know why such a cause
produces such an effect, and to satisfy itself that it could not have
been produced by any other cause. Smith's work is a collection of
demonstrations which have raised many propositions to the rank of
undoubted principles, and have plunged a greater number in the
gulf where vague ideas and hypotheses, extravagant imaginations,
struggle a short time, before being swallowed up for ever."
Thus we see that Mill's assertion that all the most distinguished
Economists have considered Political Economy as an a priori
science, and have treated it so, is entirely disproved. Whether we
agree on all points with Say is another matter, but every one must
admit him to be a distinguished Economist, and we see plainly that
he not only declares, in the most emphatic language, that it is an
experimental and an inductive science, but he condemns by
anticipation the very doctrines Mill has put forth in the extracts
given above, and points out the mischievous effect they had already
produced. We entirely concur in and adopt these views of Say. So
far from all the most distinguished Economists having adopted the
a priori method, it is only Ricardo and his followers who have done
so in this country, and, as we shall shew in the subsequent part of
this work, with the most pernicious consequences.
15. Having thus shewn that Mill is completely in error in his
allegations of fact, and contradictory to himself on the method of
investigation proper to the subject, we shall now examine the
reasons he alleges for his last-mentioned doctrine. He says —
"There is a property common to almost all the moral sciences, and
by which they are distinguished from many of the physical ; that is,
3 Ibid, p 25.
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1 6 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
that it is seldom in our power to make experiments in them. In
chemistry and natural philosophy, we can not only observe what
happens under all the combinations of circumstances which nature
brings together, but we may also try an indefinite number of new
combinations. This we can seldom do in ethical and scarcely ever
in political science. We cannot try forms of government, and
systems of national policy, on a diminutive scale, in our laboratories ;
shaping our experiments as we think that they may most conduce to
the advancement of knowledge. We therefore study Nature under
circumstances of great disadvantage in these sciences, being confined
to the limited number of experiments which take place (if we may
so speak) of their own accord, without any preparation or manage-
ment of ours, in circumstances, moreover, of great complexity, and
never perfectly known to us, and with the far greater part of the
processes concealed from our observation.
" The consequence of this invariable defect in the materials of
this induction, is that we can rarely obtain what Bacon has
quaintly, but not inaptly, termed an expcrimentum cruets"1 Also —
" Since, therefore, it is vain to hope that truth can be arrived at,
either in Political Economy or in any other department of the Social
Science, while we look at the facts in the concrete, clothed in all the
complexity with which Nature has surrounded them, and endeavour
to elicit a general law by a process of induction from a comparison
of details; there remains no other method than the & priori one, or
that of abstract speculation."8
1 6. And that this opinion is no hasty or ill considered one, is
evident, because Mill repeats the very same argument in his later
work — " We have thus already come within sight of a conclusion
which the progress of the inquiry will, I think, bring before us with
the clearest evidence, namely, that in the sciences which deal with
phenomena, in which artificial experiments are impossible (as in the
case of Astronomy), or in which they have a very limited range (as
in Physiology, Mental Philosophy, and the Social Science) ; induction
from direct experience is practised at a disadvantage generally
equivalent to impracticability, from which it follows that the methods
in these sciences, in order to accomplish anything worthy of
attainment, must be, to a great extent, if not principally, deductive.
This is already known to be the case with the first of the sciences
we have mentioned, astronomy ; that it is not generally recognised
as true of the others, is probably one of the reasons why they are
1 Essays upon some unsettled questions in Political Economy y p. 146.
1 Ibid. p. 148.
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*^eese u
Ch.L] On the Method of Investigation -- "^17
still in their infancy." 1 And we must protest against Mill's doctrine
— "The deductive method, which in the present state of knowledge
is destined henceforth irrevocably to predominate in the cause of
scientific investigation. A revolution is peaceably and progressively
effecting itself in Philosophy, the reverse of that to which Bacon
has attached his name. That great man changed the method of the
sciences from deductive .to experimental, and it is now rapidly
reverting from experimental to deductive."2 Of this doctrine we
shall have something more to say hereafter.
17. Mill's reason, therefore, for maintaining in exact opposition to
what he had done before, that Political Economy is not an Inductive
Science, is that it is not possible to perform an unlimited number of
experiments in it, as may be done in some physical sciences. The
slightest reflection will show that this argument is quite untenable.
It is not possible to perform experiments in Mental Philosophy, yet
all the most distinguished cultivators of Psychology in modern
times, have unanimously declared it to be an Inductive Science. It
is not possible to perform experiments in Comparative Philology, and
yet, Max Muller strenuously urges that Comparative Philology is a
physical Inductive Science. And it certainly would be most
monstrous to declare that Comparative Philology is an a priori
science. The power of performing experiments at will is by no
means an essential feature of an Inductive Science, though, no
doubt, it gives enormous advantages in some cases. It is rarely
possible to perform experiments in Geology, yet if any one were to
maintain that Geology is an abstract h priori science, few people
now-a-days would care to listen to such a person. Mill's example of
astronomy is scarcely relevant, because modern astronomy is
undoubtedly founded on induction, and is only a branch of
mechanics, which is certainly an Inductive Science. And there are
many other sciences to which the preceding remarks are applicable.
It is perfectly true that in Economics it is not generally possible to
make experiments, except by those at the head of the State. We
may therefore at once admit that a solitary inquirer has not the
power of making an unlimited number of arbitrary experiments, and
that he can only watch by direct observation those performed by the
State, and these will be found to be amply sufficient for the purpose.
But in Economics and the Moral Sciences generally — we can have
what are in all respects equivalent to experiments — namely
Feigned Cases. It is perfectly well known that when the
application of a legal principle is doubtful, it is customary to feign a
1 Logic, bk. iii. c 7, § 3. * Logic t bk. iii. c. 13, § 7.
0
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1 8 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
case, for the purpose of clearing up doubtful points, and the same is
true of the Moral Sciences generally, and gave rise to the great
Science of Casuistry, or Cases of Conscience. We can argue
from feigned cases, and educe principles from them, with exactly the
same degree of certainty as if they were real cases ; and also with
the same degree of certainty as principles are tested by real
experiments in experimental science.
/78. But there is one point which must be particularly attended to,
<^ 'in arguing from feigned cases, drawn from the very analogy of
experiments. The feigned cases devised for the purpose of eliciting
principles must be possible. An experiment from its very nature is
a possible combination of circumstances. [ Now in Economics or in
any Moral Science, no true principle can be elicited from an
impossible case. It is not possible to predicate any result at all in
such a case. Nor is this palpable truth of small importance.
Writers who have adopted the & priori method have often argued
from feigned cases, but they have not always observed this rule.
We may cite one conspicuous example of the violation of this
principle. In some attempts that have been made to show that an
increase of the currency can have no effect in increasing the
production of wealth, but would only raise the price of existing
commodities, it is sometimes argued in this way — " Suppose," it is
said, " people were to awake some morning, and find all their money
doubled in quantity, what would be the effect? Simply that the
prices of all commodities wouteUbe doubled." But the answer to
this mode of arguing is, that it is an impossible case, and no
principle can be educed from such a case. It is not possible that
such a thing should happen, and all results attempted to be deduced
from such an example must be discarded as futile. If we would
educe principles of any worth from a supposed case of the doubling
of the quantity of the currency, we must strictly suppose it to be
doubled in the way it would really happen.
19. There are then two great divisions of Inductive Science —
Physical and Moral, both absolutely identical in their genius, both
to be followed and cultivated by the same method. Now Physical
Inductive Science often receives a name from the character of the
method by which its general laws, or axioms, are proved, that is by
observation and Experiment, and from this it is often called
Experimental Philosophy. Now it seems to be of advantage to
have a distinctive name for Moral Inductive Science, or that great
branch of Inductive Science, whose axioms are tested by observation
and feigned cases, or human Experience, and the name of
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Ch. I.] On the Method of Investigation 19
Experiential Philosophy seems not inappropriate. Hence we
have Inductive Science divided into two great provinces, Physical
and Moral, which may be respectively called Experimental and
Experiential Philosophy, and then we have this principle — What
Experiments are to Experimental Science, possible Feigned Cases are
to Experiential Science.
20. As soon as we admit this, it follows that the whole of that
great body of Inductive Logic, the foundations of which were so
widely and grandly and securely laid by Bacon, and to which many
additions and extensions have been made, as new principles of
Inductive Logic were evolved in the gradual formation of the various
Inductive Sciences, for the purpose of framing conceptions, and
testing axioms or general principles, by due experiments, is
applicable to frame the conceptions and axioms of Experiential
Science by properly devised feigned cases, if experiments cannot be
had. Thus we have only to substitute "feigned cases" for
"experiments" throughout, and we obtain an Inductive Logic for
Experiential Philosophy.
21. Economics, then, being admitted to be a Physical Science, we
have next to inquire what is the nature of a Physical Science, and
what are the indispensable methods necessary to be observed to
buiid up and erect a great Inductive Science of Economics on solid
and durable foundations?
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CHAPTER II.
ON THE NATURE OF A PHYSICAL SCIENCE;
AND ON THE FORMATION OF GENERAL CONCEPTIONS
AND GENERAL AXIOMS.
i. As it is now generally admitted that Economics is a Physical
Science, and is to be constructed in a manner analogous to that in
which the various Physical Sciences have been constructed, it will be
of advantage to make some general remarks on the nature of a
Physical Science, and to lay down some general principles of reason-
ing which will assist us to decide various controversies in Economics
which we shall have to consider.
2. A Physical Science is the body of laws which govern the
phenomena relating to some single idea, or quality, of the most
general nature appertaining to material substances; and whatever
material quantity possesses that quality is an Element in that
science, no matter what other qualities it possesses.
Thus, every substance which possesses divers qualities will be an
element in as many sciences as it has qualities. And single qualities
may exist in quantities of the most divers natures. It thus happens
that in every science there are elements of divers forms and
natures.
Thus the science of Arithmetic, or Algebra, is the science of
number or measure ; and, consequently, whatever can be numbered
or measured is an Arithmetical or Algebraical, Quantity. Thus
quantities of the most divers natures are brought under the dominion
of Arithmetic or Algebra, simply from their capability of being
measured.
Thus time, space, velocity, material substances of all sorts, which
have no other property in common but the capability of being
measured, are all Arithmetical or Algebraical Quantities.
3. So the Science of Mechanics in its most general form treats of
Forces. And these Forces are of the most divers forms and
natures, and agree in nothing except that their effects can be
measured.
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Ch. ii.] On the Nature of a Physical Science 21
The general definition of Force in Mechanics is — Anything which
causes^ or tends to cause, motion.
Thus some forces are material and corporeal, such as men,
animals, &c Others are incorporeal, invisible, and intangible, like
gravity, electricity, magnetism, &c. Other forces are explosives,
like gunpowder, &c There is also the force of the wind, steam,
and others.
Now, all these forces of the most divers natures are all
Mechanical Quantities, because they all satisfy the mechanical
definition of Force.
4. So Chemistry is the science of the combination of molecules,
and there are bodies of divers forms, solid, liquid, and aeriform.
5. So in Optics and Heat, we have to consider how all sorts
of bodies or substances, solid, liquid, or aeriform, affect Light, or
are affected by Heat.
6. Now, as these are all experimental sciences, or sciences of
causes and effects, the fundamental condition of any body of
phenomena being capable of being erected into a science is that
some method must be discovered of measuring the effects. Thus
Heat could never have been erected into a science without the
invention of the thermometer.
L-The whole certainty of the belief in Physical Science rests upon
this, that the Creator has impressed or endowed material substances
with certain fixed, uniform, and unchangeable qualities, and that
similar causes will always produce similar effects or phenomena, and
when once the laws which govern the phenomena are ascertained by
observation and experiment, and truly expressed in accurate
language, we are always able to predict the consequences or effects
that will follow from definite cause&J
7. Now if there be, as is asserted, a Moral Philosophy composed
of a number of distinct Moral Sciences, as Physical Philosophy
is composed of distinct Physical Sciences, what can it mean ? And
how is a Moral Science to be created on the analogy of a Physical
Science ?
It can only mean this — That man, like physical substances, is
endowed with divers moral qualities, properties, or passions, such as
Hope, Fear, Anger, Shame, Desire, Resentment, &c. Certain
causes acting upon these different passions, or qualities, produce
effects in men. Now, if these passions or qualities were as uniform
and invariable in men as the properties or qualities are in physical
substances, and if the same causes produced the same effects
uniformly and invariably on each of these qualities in men, and
j
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22 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
if any means could be discovered of measuring these effects — if, in
short, we could invent a Thumometer, as well as a Thermometer
— then each of these qualities or passions might be made the
subject of a distinct Moral Science, as certain as a Physical Science,
and we should have a body of Moral Philosophy as certain as, and
analogous to, Physical Philosophy.
8. Men, however, it is well known, are not endowed with these
moral qualities in the same uniform and invariable manner that
physical substances are. A person deeply conversant with human
nature may, no doubt, prognosticate the effects that will be produced
on masses of men by certain causes, and on this knowledge of
human nature is founded the power of the Statesman, the Orator,
and the Poet. But it is not certain that each separate man will be
amenable to these influences. It is a common observation that it is
much easier to know human nature in general than any man in
particular. It is also well known that these effects produced in men
are not capable of any numerical measurement Though, therefore,
it is undoubtedly true that the general principles of reasoning are the
same in Moral as in Physical Science, yet, from the want of
uniformity in the properties or passions, and the impossibility of
devising a means of measuring their effects, they are not capable of
being carried to the same state of perfection as the Physical Sciences.
]^9. Nevertheless, if there be any Moral Science founded on any
quality of men which prevails, and has prevailed, among men of all
ages, countries, and varieties, with the same uniformity and
invariability as the qualities of physical substances do — and more
especially if its effects can be measured numerically — such a Moral
Science may be erected into a science closely approximating to the
precision and the certainty of a Physical Science: and a Moral
Inductive Science may be created by observing the phenomena
relating to that quality, and following the same course of generalizing
the Laws which govern these phenomena, in all respects analogous
to a great Physical Inductive Science^
10. Now, Political Economy, or Economics, is declared to be
a Moral Science and an Inductive Science, and it is contended that
it is to be constituted and erected into a science in the same manner
as a Physical Science. What can this mean ? and how is this to be
done ? *
It is perfectly well agreed now by all Economists that Economics
is the Science which treats of things so far as they are Wealth. It
is the science which treats of the Laws which govern the phenomena
of wealth.
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\/^"
Ch. II.] On the Nature of a Physical Science 23
Now, without inquiring yet what wealth is, and what that quality
of things is which constitutes them "Wealth/' we may lay down
these preliminary considerations which must govern the course of
the inquiry, and the method of constructing the science. The (_ w 1
quality which constitutes things " Wealth," must be some Single * ^ j Jt v
quality of the most general nature ; and the Science of Wealth must ^ . (^<-LK '
be the science of the phenomena resulting from that quality.
11. Following the analogy of Physical Science, we may lay this
down, that whatever quality that may be defined to be which
constitutes a thing Wealth — without at present in the slightest
degree anticipating what it may be — we may say that in whatever
that quality may be found to exist — it must be technically Wealth,
whatever its nature be, and whatever other qualities it may possess.
Arguing from the strictest analogy of Physical Science, we may say
that whatever satisfies the Economic definition of Wealth, is an
Economic Quantity, or Wealth — whatever other qualities it may
possess. And Economics treats exclusively of the phenomena
relating to that quality, and takes no notice whatever of any other
qualities the quantity may possess, or of the phenomena relating to
them. Just as we may consider man purely as a mechanical force,
and without reference to any other qualities he may possess, moral
or physical.
12. So much for the general conception of the science. We have
to search for, and ascertain what that quality is which constitutes
things Wealth, and then we have to search for and discover all the
different species of quantities which satisfy that definition.
Thus, with respect to glass, diamonds, oils, and other things, we
know the qualities which bring them under the dominion of
Chemistry, Optics, Heat, Electricity, &c, but what is thjit quality
which brings them under Economics, or makes them Economic
Quantities ?
Now, arguing from the general analogy of Physical Science, and
without in the least anticipating any controversies we may hereafter
find to prevail on the subject, we may say that we may naturally
expect that there will be found to be quantities of several divers and
distinct natures which will satisfy the Economical definition of
Wealth, and consequently be Economic Quantities. And it is clear
that we must take care to search for and ascertain all these different
species of quantities, because if we omit any, those conceptions and
principles which may be founded on contemplating only certain,
species will probably be found to be partial and erroneous, and not
true as general conceptions and general laws, and they will vitiate
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24 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
the results obtained. It is infinitely better to commence at first by
ascertaining that we have included all species in our Conceptions
and Axioms, than afterwards to have to pull down, widen, enlarge,
and re-construct our system from careless omissions in the first
instance.
Thus we see clearly the nature of a science. Our future object
will be to discover to what body of phenomena the name of Political
Economy, or Economics, is applicable.
On the Formation of General Concepts and General Axioms,
or General Principles.
13. The nature of a science being thus determined, the next
point is to construct it, or to discover the laws which govern its
phenomena, or in other words to be able to explain the phenomena.
Every science consists of two parts — 1st, General Concepts or
Definitions, or a due classification of the quantities it treats about,
and 2ndly, the Laws which govern their relations, called by Bacon,
Newton, and many others, Axioms or General Principles.
14. By that mysterious correlation which holds between reasoning
and reality, it is invariably found that if concepts of things are
framed which are true to nature, and results are calculated according
to reasoning which is also true to nature, they will be found to
correspond to reality. That is, if true Concepts are framed, and
truly reasoned about, results may be predicted. But if results are
calculated, and it is found that they do not correspond to nature,
but are palpably and notoriously erroneous, then we are imme-
diately certain that either the concept or the reasoning must be
erroneous.
15. Bacon says that there is a great and almost radical distinction
between minds in regard to Philosophy and Science; that some are
more apt to perceive the difference of things, and others the
resemblances. This distinction, though often insisted upon as
fundamental, will perhaps, appear to be less radical if we consider
that to do each accurately, depends upon the same general power of
the mind, namely, that of separating complex terms into their
elementary ideas, and discerning which are the subordinate ones.
When the leading qualities in quantities are identical, they must be
classed together, even although some of the subordinate ones are
opposite. On the other hand, when the leading properties are
opposed, there is a fundamental distinction between the quantities,
even though some of the subordinate ones are similar. Thus the
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Ch. L] On the Nature of a Physical Science 25
same general analytical power of the mind enables us to annihilate
spurious identities, and also to detect latent similarities. Now, all
true classification, which is as much as to say all true science, is
based upon perceiving fundamental analogies beneath superficial
differences, and fundamental distinctions beneath superficial re-
semblances.
16. Now, the formation of Definitions, or Concepts, is not arbi-
trary, or dependent on the will of the writer. Their formation
as well as that of Axioms, or General Laws, is strictly subject to
certain general Philosophic Laws.
We may state two canons of fundamental importance : —
/. The Fundamental Concepts and Axioms of every Science must
be perfectly general.
IL No General Concept and no General Axiom, must contain any
term, involving more than one Fundamental Idea.
The truth of this latter canon is manifest, because if any term
involve more than one fundamental idea, it limits the Concept or
Axiom, which is contrary to the first canon.
Consequently, if we wish to bring Economics to the state of
an exact science, we must carefully examine all its fundamental
Concepts and Axioms, and reduce them to the state of generality
and simplicity, required by the above canons. Hence, if we meet
with Concepts and Axioms which violate them by containing several
ideas, we must apply the general principles of Inductive Logic to
discover which is the true general idea, and eliminate all other
accidental, particular, or intrusive ideas.
On the Formation of General Concepts.
17. Socrates, says Aristotle, was the first to frame general
definitions, because he saw that all systematic reasoning must be
based upon definitions; and every philosopher of note, from that
day to this, has repeated the same thing. The chief charge alleged
by Bacon against the Logic of the schools was, that it was wholly
incapable of penetrating the recesses of nature. "The Syllogism
consists of propositions, propositions of words, but words are the
tokens and signs of Concepts. So that, if the very conceptions
of the mind (which are, as it were, the soul of words and the
foundation of this superstructure and edifice) are badly and
inconsiderately formed from the facts, vague, nor sufficiently definite
and limited, faulty in short in every way, it ruins every thing."1
1 Distribute Operis.
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26 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
Over and over again he repeats that the formation of Concepts,
or Definitions, and Axioms, or General Laws, by true induction is
the only way of expelling fallacies. So, in affirming that the
Concepts and Axioms of his own day were utterly worthless, he
says :— " The discoveries already made in the sciences are of such a
sort as scarcely to be below the surface of the vulgar notions ; but,
in order to penetrate to the deep recesses of nature, both Concepts
and Axioms must be derived from facts, by a more certain and
guarded method."1 Again: — "The formation of Concepts and
Axioms, by a true induction, is assuredly the true remedy to drive
away and expel fallacies. And of those fallacies, the fallacies
of language {Idola fort), which men gain from one another by
common discourse, are the most troublesome of all. For the ill
and unfit choice of words wonderfully obstructs the understanding.
For words plainly exert a power over the understanding, and throw
everything into confusion, and lead men away into numberless
empty controversies and phantasies; for men believe that their
understanding controls their language, but it is also true that
language re-acts and turns back its power over the understanding,
which is the very thing which has rendered philosophy and the
sciences sophistical and inactive. But words are commonly framed
by the capacity of the vulgar, and divide things according to the
lines which are most obvious to the minds of the vulgar. And
whenever a clearer intellect and a more careful observation wishes
to shift these lines to a truer agreement with nature, words cry out
against it Thus it happens that great and important discussions
of learned men often turn into controversies about words and
names, with which, according to the wise custom of mathematicians,
it would be more prudent to begin, and so bring them into order by
Definitions."2
Again — "The formation of ideas or true Concepts and Axioms
by true induction is, no doubt, the proper remedy to be applied for
the keeping off and clearing away fallacies. To point them out is
of great use ; for the doctrine of fallacies is to the interpretation of
nature what the doctrine of the refutation of sophisms is to common
Logic."8 Also — "The fallacies which words impose upon the
understanding are of two sorts. They are either names of things
which do exist, but are confused and ill denned, and hastily and
irregularly formed from the facts. And this class which is formed
by a bad and unskilful abstraction is intricate and deeply rooted."*
1 Nov. Org. bk. i. aph. 18. 2 Nov. Org. bk. i. aph. 89.
• Nov. Org. bk. i. aph. 40. 4 Nov. Org. bk. i. aph. 6a
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Ch. II.] On the Nature of a Physical Science 27
— " And the assistance of this induction is to be used, not only in
discovering general laws, but also in the formation of concepts.
And assuredly in this induction the chief hope lies.1'4
Bacon then places the foundation of all science in the extirpa-
tion of Fallacies (Idols) and the obtaining true general Concepts
(Ideas) from nature and reality itself by genuine induction, which
are not to be fanciful fictions of the mind. He maintains that
Concepts are to be obtained in the same manner as Axioms or
General Laws. But he has not given any examples of his method,
nor indeed was it possible that he should do so. No Logic
can shew how it can be done. It is the part of Imagination, or
Invention, to devise and suggest fundamental conceptions, and of
Logic to determine whether they be true or not The Baconian
method of induction has been far more generally applied to General
Laws than to Concepts. From whence some have drawn the con-
clusion that his method is practically useless. We hope that we
shall be able to shew that this is not so, but that the Baconian, or
Inductive, Logic may be applied with decisive effect in determining
the controversies which prevail up to the present hour as to every
single General Concept in Economics.
And most men eminent as clear thinkers since the days of Bacon
have dwelt upon the importance of true conceptions. Thus Hobbes
says — " In the right definition of names lies the first use of speech,
which is the acquisition of science. And in wrong or no definitions,
lies the first abuse from which proceed all false and senseless tenets."
And again — "Every man who aspires to true knowledge should
examine the definitions of former authors, and either correct them,
or make them anew."1
One of the most valuable parts of Locke's Essay, is that in which
he dwells upon and enforces the necessity of accurate general terms,
and the importance of refining and polishing common language for
philosophical purposes. And he especially notes the mischievous
consequences that follow from the inconstant use of them — " It is
hard to find a discourse written upon any subject, especially of
controversy, wherein one shall not observe, if he read with attention
the words (and those commonly the most material in the discourse
and upon which the argument turns) used sometimes in one collec-
tion of simple ideas, and sometimes for another, which is a perfect
abuse of language. Words being intended for signs of my ideas to
make them known to others, not by any natural signification, but by
a voluntary imposition, it is plain cheat and abuse, when I make
1 New. Org, bk. L aph. 105. 9 Leviathan, pt i. c 4.
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28 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
them stand sometimes for one thing and sometimes for another ; the
wilful doing whereof, can be imputed to great folly, or greater dis-
honesty." 1 Again — "Knowledge and reasoning require precise
determinate ideas. The multiplication and obstinacy of disputes,
which have so laid waste the intellectual world, is owing to nothing
more than to this ill use of words. For though it is generally
believed that there is great diversity of opinions, in the volumes
and variety of controversies the world is distracted with, yet the
most I can find that the contending learned men of different parties
do, in their arguings one with another, is, that they speak different
languages."2 Locke then says that by proper attention being paid
to language, Moral Science may be reduced to demonstration. —
"Upon this ground it is, that I am bold to think that Morality
is capable of demonstration, as well as mathematics; since the
precise real essence of the things moral words stand for may be
perfectly known. . . . And, therefore, the negligence and perverse-
ness of mankind cannot be excused, if their discourses in morality
be not much more clear than those in Natural Philosophy. . . .
Yet this, the least that can be expected, that in all discourses,
wherein one man pretends to instruct or convince another, he should
use the same word constantly in the same sense ; if this were done,
which nobody can refuse without great disingenuity, many of the
books extant might be spared : many of the controversies in dispute
would be at an end, several of these great volumes, swollen with
ambiguous words now used in one sense, and by and bye in another,
would shrink into a very narrow compass/1 8 How true ail this is of
Economics, any one who has read the subject can tell 1
So also Mill perfectly acknowledges in a general way the im-
portance of true conceptions. " How to define a name may not
only be an inquiry of considerable difficulty and intricacy, but may
involve considerations going deep into the nature of the things
which are denoted by the name."4 Again — "Few people have
reflected how great a knowledge of things is required to enable a
man to affirm that any given argument turns wholly upon words.
There is, perhaps, not one of the leading terms of philosophy which
is not used in almost innumerable shades of meaning, to express
ideas more or less widely different from one another. Between two
of these ideas a sagacious and penetrating mind will discern, as it were
intuitively, an unobvious link of connection, upon which, though
perhaps unable to give a logical account of it, he will found a
1 Essay, bk. iii. c io, § 5. * Essay, bk. iii. c. 10, § 22.
8 Essay, bk. iii. c. 2, § 16, 17, 26. 4 Logic, bk. i. c 8, § 7.
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Ch. II.] On the Nature of a Physical Science 29
perfectly valid argument, which his critic, not having so keen an
insight into the things, will mistake for a fallacy turning on the
double meaning of a term. And the greater the genius of him who
safely leaps over the chasm, the greater will probably be the crowing
and vain glory of the mere logician who, hobbling after him, evinces
his own superior wisdom by pausing on its brink, and giving up as
desperate his proper business of bridging it over." 1 And concluding
the chapter, he says — "And since upon the result of this inquiry
respecting the causes of the properties of a class of things, there
incidentally depends the question what shall be the meaning of a
word, some of the most profound and most valuable investigations
which philosophy presents to us have been introduced by, and have
offered themselves under the guise of inquiries into the definition of
a name."2
After so distinctly recognizing the importance of true definitions,
it might naturally be expected that Mill should bestow extra-
ordinary care on the ascertainment and settlement of the Fun-
damental Concepts of Economics, the obscurity and confusion of
which, every one knows, have given rise to the greater part of the
controversies in the subject But just as in the former case, where
Mill, after having amply acknowledged that Moral Science is to
be cultivated in the spirit and method of Physical Science, when he
comes to Economics in particular, turns his back upon himself, and
maintains that it is an d priori science ; so here, after amply ack-
nowledging the importance of true Philosophical Concepts, when
he comes to Economics he says — " It is no part of the design of
this treatise to aim at metaphysical nicety of definition, where the
ideas suggested by a term are already as determinate as practical
purposes require."8 But what definition in Economics is as deter-
minate as practical purposes require? Not a single one ! And in
a subsequent chapter we shall see how contradictory are many of
Mill's definitions.
On the Formation of General Axioms.
18. Having obtained General Concepts or Definitions of Quan-
tities treated about, our next purpose is to discover the General
Law which governs their relations to each other, and in searching
for this, we must observe that, there can be but one General
Theory at the basis of all phenomena. In particular classes of
cases, there may undoubtedly be other circumstances which may
aggravate, neutralize, or overpower, and seemingly reverse the
***<#*, bk. i. c. 8, § 7. » Logic, bk. i. c. 8, § 7. » Pol. Econ. p. 2.
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30 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
General Theory ; but for all that, it is there, and acts universally.
In several different sciences no doubt different General Theories
have prevailed, such as in Astronomy, Optics, Heat, Electricity, &c. ;
but no Physical Philosopher ever dreamt of explaining every different
class of phenomena by a distinct theory. No one ever thought of
writing a book on Astronomy, in which one chapter was written on
the Ptolemaic Theory, another chapter on the Copernican Theory,
and another chapter on Tycho Brahe's Theory. No one ever
thought of writing a book on Optics, one part of which was based
upon the Emission Theory, and another on the Wave Theory of
Light, and so on of the other sciences. It has always been clearly
understood that there could be but one General Theory which
governed all phenomena, though liable to be modified by disturbing
causes in particular cases. And the business of the Physical Philoso-
pher has always been to discover which is the true General Theory ;
and the grand business of the Baconian, or Inductive, Logic, has
been to discover and lay down the principles which are to decide
which is the true Theory. In politics, no doubt, we require the
spirit of compromise, and many contradictions are tolerated for the
sake of general peace. But in science, toleration and compromise
are impossible. It is always a mortal combat between rival theories.
All but one must perish ; and it is the business of Inductive Logic
to pronounce the doom of Life or Death*
Now without even yet determining what Economics is, we may
lay this down, that if it be a Physical Science, as is so often asserted,
v there can be but one General Theory of the relations between
Economic Quantities. To break up Economic phenomena into
distinct classes of cases, and to maintain that there is a distinct
fundamental Theory, or Axiom, or Law, governing each class of
cases, would be utterly abhorrent to the fundamental principles of
Natural Philosophy.
Bacon gives abundant precepts for the determination of the truth
of rival theories, and he enforces the necessity of carefully devised
experiments (and in the Moral Sciences possible feigned cases), and
the attention necessary to contrive a variety of them, and to extend
the inquiry generally. " For no one successfully investigates the
nature of a thing in the thing itself/' And he advises us to imitate
the Divine Wisdom, which in the first day created light only. So
we must endeavour to gather from all sorts of experience, and to
discover true causes and general principles, and to devise "expert-
menta lucifera" for this purpose, or instances contrived with the
express view of testing general principles before we go to practice.
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Ch. II.] On the Nature of a Physical Science 31
For he says that all true knowledge consists in knowing true causes,
and that which in Theory is the cause, in Practice is the rule. " For
though we are chiefly in pursuit of the practical and active part of
science, we must wait for the time of the harvest, and not reap the
moss or the green corn. For we well know that general principles,
once rightly discovered, will carry whole troops of works with them,
and will produce effects not in single instances, but in multitudes." x
Some writers of eminence, indeed, seem to think that Bacon has
neglected too much, or even omitted, the deductive part of science,
or the explanation of phenomena by general principles. But we
cannot agree to this. He has clearly and repeatedly asserted that
his Philosophy consists, first, of the eliciting general conceptions
and general axioms from particular cases — the Inductive part — the
ascending to abstract principles from concrete cases ; and, secondly,
the descending part, or the application of general principles, so
obtained by Induction, to the explanation of phenomena. "Axioms
duly and orderly formed from particulars, easily discover the way to
new particulars, and thus render sciences active."2 — "The true
method of experience, on the contrary, first lights the candle, and
then by means of the candle, shews the way; commencing as it
does with experience duly ordered and digested, not bungling or
erratic, and from it educing Axioms, and from established Axioms
again new experiments. " 3 — " From the new ligfct of Axioms, which,
having been educed from these particulars by a certain method and
rule, shall in their turn point out the way again to new particulars,
greater things may be looked for. For our road does not lie on a
level, but ascends and descends; first ascending to Axioms, then
descending to works." 4 — " And the truth is that the knowledge of
simple natures well examined and defined is light ; it gives entrance
to all the secrets of nature's workshop, and virtually includes and
draws after it whole bands and troops of works, and opens to us the
source of the noblest axioms."5
It clearly appears, therefore, that Deduction was not only an
essential part of the Baconian Philosophy, but its very aim and
object, because it was the practical part of it. The very aim of
Bacon was, by discovering true science or the knowledge of causes,
to be able to govern the world of reality, or effects. To say, there-
fore, that Bacon omitted the Deductive part is manifestly as great an
error as that of J. B. Say, who declared that Bacon was quite
1 Distribute Open's. * Nov. Org. bk. i. aph. 24.
3 Nov. Org. bk. i. 84. * Nov. Org. bk. i. aph. 103.
* Nov. Org. bk. i. aph. 121.
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32 On the Nature and History of Economics [bk. L
ignorant that the method of his Philosophy was applicable to any-
thing but Physical Science. Mill is, therefore, also in error when he
says that a revolution in science is peaceably taking place, and that
we are reverting from the Inductive to the Deductive method. Even
if it were true, it is not a revolt from, but the express fulfilment o£
the Baconian Philosophy. And we think the example Mill has
selected peculiarly unfortunate, because the practical triumphs of the
astronomer are entirely due to the Theoretical, or Inductive, dis-
covery of the fundamental Laws of Mechanics. Astronomy is
nothing whatever but a practical example of the general laws of
Mechanics, and is the most sublime proof of the truth of the
Baconian Philosophy.
12. One of the great fundamental Laws of Inductive Logic per-
vading every part of the Novum Organum, and expressing its very
spirit, is called the Law of Continuity , and is thus described by
Whewell, Nov. Org. Renov. p. 221 : —
"A quantity cannot pass from one amount to another by any change
of conditions > without passing through all the intermediate magnitudes,
according to the intermediate conditions?
"This Law may often be employed to correct inaccurate deduc-
tions, and to reject distinctions which have no real foundation in
nature. For example : The Aristotelians made a distinction between
motion according to nature (as that of a body falling vertically down-
wards) and motion contrary to nature (as that of a body moving along
a horizontal plane) ; the former they held became naturally quicker
and quicker, the latter naturally slower and slower. But to this it
might be replied that a horizontal line may pass by gradual motion
through various inclined positions to a vertical position, and thus
the retarded motion may pass into the accelerated ; and hence there
must be some inclined plane on which motion is naturally uniform,
which is false, and therefore the distinction of such kinds of motion
is unfounded." That is to say, there is no point whatever at which
one kind of motion passes into another. Again : — " The evidence
of the Law of Continuity resides in the universality of those Ideas,
which enter into our apprehension of Laws of Nature. When of
two quantities one depends upon the other, the Law of Continuity
necessarily governs the dependence. Every philosopher has the
power of applying this Law, in proportion as he has the faculty of
apprehending the Ideas which he employs in his Induction, with the
same clearness and steadiness which belong to the fundamental
Ideas of Quantity, Space, and Number. To those who possess this
faculty, the Law is a rule of very wide and decisive application. Its
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Ch. II.] On the Nature of a Physical Science 33
use, as has appeared in the above example, is seen rather in the dis-
proof of erroneous views, and in the correction of false propositions,
than in the invention of new truths. It is a test of truth rather than
an instrument of discovery " l — which, we may observe, is the true
function of all Logic, both Aristotelian and Baconian — formal and
inductive.
The Law of Continuity is one of the most powerful weapons of
Inductive Logic, and is of very wide application in Physical research.
It has been employed with immense effect in settling the fundamen-
tal conceptions of Mechanics, Electricity, Geology, and indeed of
every other science. Its capability of being applied to settle the
fundamental Concepts and Axioms of Economics has never yet,
that we are aware of, even been suspected ! And yet we shall shew
that it is capable of absolutely deciding and determining once and
for ever, the greater portion of the controversies in Economics.
The great philosophers who founded the Physical Sciences
instinctively obeyed the Laws of the Baconian, or Inductive, Logic,
which are undoubtedly true in the main. In fact this Logic, must
have been necessarily evolved in the process of the formation of
those sciences. Because in all controversies it is necessarily assumed
that there is some supreme power which is admitted to be capable
of deciding authoritatively on all scientific discussions, which must
be yielded to by both parties, or else there is no prospect or possi-
bility of bringing the discussions to a final end. And that supreme
power is the Reason, the Divine AOrOS, or Logic — the common
property of God and Man.2
" Know that in the soul
Are many lesser faculties that serve
Reason as chief; among these Fancy next
Her office holds ; of all external things,
Which the five watchful senses represent,
She forms imaginations, eary shapes,
Which Reason, joining or disjoining, frames
All which we affirm or what deny, and call
Our knowledge or opinion ; then retires
Into her private cell, when Nature rests.
Oft in her absence mimic Fancy wakes
To imitate her ; but, misjoining shapes,
Wild work produces oft —
HI matching words and deeds."
The wonderful sagacity of Bacon was that he anticipated this
natural process, and first created that science of sciences, which rules
every particular science with supreme power. All controversies in
1 Whewell, Nov. Org. Renov. p. 223. 9 Cicero, de Legibtis, bk. L § 5.
D
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34 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. L
.Economics* both as to Concepts and Axioms, must be brought to
the tribunal of this supreme power, and must be decided by exactly
the same general principles of Inductive Logic, as have already
decided finally the controversies in Physical Science.
• 20. We shall endeavour in the following chapter to show the
application of the principles we have been considering. In the first
Book we shall give a narrative of the differences of opinion, or a
History of the Ideas that have prevailed as to the nature and limits
of the science of Economics itself, and employ the principles of
inductive Logic to determine which is the true one. We shall
frame a Definition, or precise Conception of the Science, clearly
expressing the body of phenomena, whose laws it is our business to
discover. ; .
r, The second Book investigates the Fundamental Concepts of
the Science, and brings together various controversies and dis-
cussions which have been held on each of them, and shews the
application of Inductive Logic to determine which are the true
General Concepts.
This completes the Inductive, or Theoretical, portion of the
Science, in which true Concepts and Axioms are obtained by
genuine Induction from Nature itself.
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CHAPTER III.
HISTORY OF ECONOMICS.
It was until very recently an assured opinion in this country that
Adam Smith was the founder and creator of the Science of
Political Economy — or Economics, as it is now more usually termed
— and of Free Trade. A once prominent politician is reported to
have said that Political Economy and Free Trade sprang perfect
and complete from the brain of Adam Smith, as Minerva did from
the head of Jupiter. Such ideas, however, show a complete
ignorance of the history of Economics, and are now quite abandoned
by all persons who have studied the subject.
In fact, it is contrary to nature that it should have been so.
Great sciences are not created at once by a single book. They
invariably arise from small beginnings, just as the mighty Danube
flows from a spring in the garden of a German burgher. Some
men begin to observe the phenomena connected with some single
fundamental concept Then other observers bring in a larger
number of phenomena based upon the same fundamental concept ;
and so at last, by the contributions of an increasing number of
observers, it grows into a great science, just as the Danube, from
a tiny spring, is swollen into a mighty river by multitudinous
contributory streams.
Every one with a scientific instinct can at once perceive that
Adam Smith's work is pervaded with a combative air; that every
part of it is evidently written at something preceding, and that it is
intended to overthrow a prior system.
As a matter of fact, as we shall presently show, Economics was
founded as a Science by an illustrious sect of philosophers in
France in the middle of the last century, who were the first to
perceive and declare that there is a positive and definite Science
of Economics, based upon demonstrative reasoning, just as the
various physical sciences are.
The Science of Economics, like medicine, has arisen out of the
D 2
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36 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
calamities and misery of mankind, caused by the violation of true
Economic principles; and every advance in Economic theory has*
originated in some great pressing practical evil.
The Theory of Money.
The first department of Economics to be reduced to scientific
principles, and established on solid and enduring foundations, was-
the Theory of Money.
Charlemagne, about the end of the eighth century, founded the
system of coinage which was adopted in all the countries of Western
Europe. The coinage of the Romans had fallen into great disorder,,
and Charlemagne adopted the French pound weight of silver as the
unit, and divided it into 240 deniers, or pennies, 12 of which were
called a solidus9 or shilling, in account; and twenty solidi made a
pound. For a considerable time the French sovereigns maintained
the standard, but every petty count and proprietor claimed the right
of coining on his own account, and deluged the country with base
and degraded coin. Louis VI. seems to have been the first sovereign
to issue a very debased coinage, and this was constantly done by
succeeding kings. They claimed the right of issuing debased coin
and diminishing the weight of the standard coin as much as they
pleased, and forcing their subjects to accept the debased and
diminished coin at the same value as good coin. Moreover, they
complicated matters by introducing a gold coinage in the twelfth
century, and they claimed the right of changing the weight of the
coins, and their rating with respect to each other, as often as they
pleased, so that whenever they had debts to pay they cried the coin
up, and when they had debts to receive they cried the coin down.
In my Dictionary of Political Economy ', Art. " Coinage of France, ""
p. 509, I have given a table of the variations in the Mint prices of
the marcs of gold and silver from the year n 13 to the revolution.
Philip le Bel was especially notorious for these evil practices, and
was singled out by Dante as a false coiner. l
" Li si vedra il duol che sopra Senna
Induce falseggiando la moneta."
There shall be seen the woe that he shall pour
Along the Seine by uttering coin debased.
These evil practices were adopted in every country in Europe,
and were called morbus numericus. They became worse than ever
under the disastrous reign of John. Between 1351 and 1360, the
1 Paradise, canto xix.
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Cm. III.] History of Economics 37
rating of the livre, or pound, was altered 71 times. The State was
in the lowest depression when Charles V., justly sumamed the Wise,
succeeded to the Crown. He perceived that the shameful state of
the coinage had been the cause of innumerable commotions and
misery, and had driven away foreign trade from the country, and
that the only way to bring back prosperity was to restore the
coinage. He referred the whole matter to one of his wisest and
most trusted councillors, Nicolas Oresme, afterwards Count Bishop
of Lisieux, who, in answer to the appeal of his Sovereign, produced
about 1366 his now justly celebrated Treatise on Money, entitled,
Traictie de la prem&re invention ties Monnoies, in twenty - six
chapters, which may be justly said to stand at the head of modern
Economic literature. This treatise laid the foundations of Monetary
Science, which are now accepted by all sound Economists. Thus
to France is due the honour of having produced the first great
treatise on an Economical subject. But Oresme's treatise was merely
a Report addressed to his Sovereign, and did not become public.
These evil practices continued to flourish in all countries in
Europe. They were carried to less extremes in England than in
any other. In 1526, Sigismund I., King of Poland, of which
Prussia then formed a part, being anxious to restore the coinage of
Prussia, which had fallen into great disorder, applied to Copernicus,
who was a member of the Prussian Diet, and he drew up a masterly
treatise on Money, entitled, Moneta cudenda, Ratioy which was only
discovered in 181 5, and has been included in the magnificent edition
of his works published at Warsaw in 1854.
Copernicus had no knowledge of Oresme's treatise, written 160
years before his own, but he came to exactly the same conclusions
as Oresme had done. They both held that the Prince, or the Law,
had no power to regulate the relative value of gold and silver ; that
the sole duty of the Prince is to maintain the weight, the purity, and
the denomination of the coins ; to change either of them is robbery.
That in regulating the relative value of the coins, the Law must
strictly conform to the relative market value of the metals. For
the coins are only pieces of bullion impressed with a stamp to certify
their weight and fineness, and the changes in their relative value
must follow the changes in the relative value of the metals. That
bad coin and good coin cannot circulate together, but the bad coin
invariably drives out the good coin from circulation, and alone
remains current That if the legal ratio of the coins does not con-
form to the relative market value of the metals, the coin which is
underrated disappears from circulation ; it is either hoarded away,
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38 On the Nature and History of Economics . [Bk. I.
or it is melted down into bullion, or it is exported. That attempting
to maintain coins in circulation at a legal ratio differing from the
relative market value of the metals, only enures to the benefit of
the bullion dealers, who buy up and melt down the underrated coin,
to the great loss of the community. Oresme said that if the Prince
can regulate the value of gold and silver, he can regulate the value
of everything else ; and Copernicus said that there cannot be more
than one measure of value in a country, any more than there can
be more than one measure of length, weight, or capacity. That
if good new coin is to be issued from the Mint, all the bad, base,
and degraded coin must first be withdrawn from circulation, or the
value of the good coin will become debased, and it will at once
disappear from circulation.
In England the sovereigns had never debased the purity of the
coins, except during a short period by Henry VIII., Mary, and
Edward VI.; but they had successively diminished their weight.
They allowed vast quantities of base and counterfeit foreign coin tc-
circulate in the country, and even the native coin to be clipped and
degraded. They never took any measures to withdraw the base and
degraded coin from circulation before issuing the good coin. The
consequence was, that all the good coin disappeared from circula-
tion as soon as it was issued from the Mint. This phenomenon was
the puzzle of financiers and statesmen, and gave rise to numerous
debates in Parliament. But they could devise no remedies except
denouncing penalties of death and mutilation against persons who
melted down and exported the good coin. They had no Oresme
or Copernicus to explain to them the true causes of this, and, as they
never discovered the true master-secret of the case, their measures
were wholly ineffectual.
At last, Sir Thomas Gresham explained to Queen Elizabeth that
allowing base and degraded coin to circulate along with good coin
caused it to disappear ; that bad coin and good coin cannot circulate
together; but that the bad coin invariably and necessarily drives
out good coin from circulation, and alone remains current. Seeing
the immense importance of this Law, I suggested, in my Elements
of Political Economy, p. 477, published in 1857, that it should
be known by the name of "Gresham's Law/' and this sugges-
tion has now been universally accepted.
But in 1864 my friend, M. Wolowski, published the Treatises
of Oresme and Copernicus, by which it appeared that these great
men had fully explained the matter 160 and 32 years respectively
previous to Gresham, so that this great Law, which is as well and
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Ch. IIL] ' History of Economics 39
firmly established as the Law of Gravitation, should be called
the Law of Oresme, Copernicus, and Gresham.
This Law may be "stated in the following terms : —
" The worst form of currency in circulation regulates the value of
the whole currency \ and drives all other forms of currency out of circu-
lation."
This was the first great fundamental Law established in Eco-
nomics, and it is now recognized that it governs all discussions
on Money and Coinage.
Oresme and Copernicus had laid down that the legal ratio
between gold and silver coins should strictly conform to the market
ratio of the metals, and that the ratio of the coins should never be
changed, except in consequence of a change in the market ratio
of -the metals. But it was found impossible to follow this rule
in practice. The ratio between gold and silver sometimes rose
above, and sometimes fell below, the legal ratio ; and it was found
that when these fluctuations took place, the metals alternately
drove each other out of circulation as they rose above or fell
below the legal ratio. And how was it possible to be constantly
calling in and recoining the money according to every change in
the market ratio of the metals? At the close of the seventeenth
century Sir William Petty, one of the most scientific men of the
age, and Locke, in a masterly and unanswerable treatise, shewed
that one metal only should be adopted as the standard unit and
measure of value, and coins of other metals should be only sub-
sidiary to the standard, and should only be allowed to be current at
their market value in relation to that standard. This doctrine was
enforced in the middle of the last century by Harris, and was fully
developed in the great master treatise on the subject, the unanswered
and unanswerable Treatise on the Coins of the Realmy by Lord
Liverpool, published in 1805, to which the Government of India,
after forty years of bitter experience of attempting to keep gold
and silver coins in circulation at a fixed legal ratio, declared their
entire adhesion in 1806, and which was finally adopted in this
country at the great recoinage in 18 16; and England now enjoys
the most perfect system of coinage ever devised by the ingenuity
of man. Every country in Europe has seen that the British
system of coinage is the only true one, and has followed it.
This was the first great Law of Economics, which was established
before the foundation of Economics as a Science by the Economists.
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40 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
Foundation of Economics as a Science.
For many centuries all Governments enacted laws regarding trade
without suspecting that there are any fixed principles on the subject
Sometimes they favoured Free Trade, sometimes Protection ; some-
times they cockered up one species of industry, sometimes another,
according to the whim of the moment, or according as they thought
that one species of industry was the most advantageous for the
country. They never seem to have had the faintest idea that the
only true principle is to leave every industry alone, and allow each
one to develop itself according to its own natural tendencies.
At length, in the fulness of time, the sublime conception of
Bacon was realised, and a new order of sciences came into existence
— the Sciences of Society.
Every one has heard of the glories of the reign of Louis XIV.,
but few, probably, have any idea of the terrible reaction and the
incredible disasters and misery at the close of his reign. These
may be learnt from contemporary writers, and also from Taine's
History of the Ancient Regime, and many other works. Before
his death, John Law, whose scheme of Paper Money had been
rejected by the Scottish Parliament in 1705, came to France,
and endeavoured to induce Desmar&s, the Minister of Finance,
to adopt it; but Desmar&s would have nothing to do with it,
and Law was ordered to quit France. Soon after the death of
Louis XlV. Law went back to France, and persuaded the Regent
Orleans to allow him to found a Bank. Now Law was not a rogue
and a swindler, as is too often thought. Barring his unfortunate
theory of Paper Money, he was the most consummate financier
of the age. He addressed fifteen letters on Banking and Credit
to the Regent Orleans, which are perfectly sound, and shewed
that he understood the nature of Credit and Banking better than
any one else of his day. The Regent accordingly allowed him
to establish his Bank, and it was a marvellous success. In three
years he raised France from the lowest state of misery and depres-
sion to the height of prosperity, so that foreign nations sent to
congratulate the Regent upon the restored condition of France.
Now Law has explained his whole theory in a work, Money and
Trade Considered. He thoroughly understood the powers of
Credit, but he saw that the powers of Credit are limited, and he
wished to create a Paper Money beyond the limits of Credit.
His ideas seem very plausible, and have been adopted in several
countries; but they have invariably produced the most frightful
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Ch. IIL] History of Economics 41
catastrophes, because they are in direct violation of the fundamental
concept of Monetary Science (Money). It would be quite im-
possible to give any account of the Mississippi scheme here, but
I have given a full account of Law's banking career in my Dic-
tionary of Political Economy , Art. Banking in France. This
catastrophe in France was not only important in itself, but was
the origin of the foundation of Economics as a Science.
In 1749 Turgot, then a young man of twenty-two, began to reflect
upon this terrible calamity, and endeavoured to discover the error of
Law's system, and the nature of Credit, in a letter to the Abbe* de
Cic£, in which he did not succeed — which is not surprising, as he
knew nothing of the Pandects of Justinian, in which the whole
Juridical Theory of Credit is set forth. Turgot associated with
himself Gournay, who was an eminent merchant, and a keen
advocate of Free Trade. They enlisted Quesnay, the King's
physician, Le Trosne, Mirabeau plre, the Abbe* Baudeau, Merciere
de la Riviere, Dupont de Nemours, and many others, who formed
themselves into a powerful sect, under the name of the Economists.
These men were the first to perceive and declare that there is a
positive and definite Science of Economics, founded upon demon-
strative reasoning, just as the physical sciences are.
They found France divided into a number of separate and semi-
independent provinces, each surrounded with custom houses, which
were an intolerable barrier and obstruction to commercial inter-
course; every species of industry was loaded with minute and
oppressive legislation, and on the slightest infraction of these
regulations, the manufactures were destroyed by the Government
inspectors ; a very large portion of the human race was groaning
under the bonds of slavery; and in every country persons were
relentlessly persecuted for their religious opinions.
The Economists held that these Commercial, Personal, and
Religious oppressions were contrary to the fundamental rights of
mankind. They proclaimed as the indefeasible rights of mankind
the Freedom of Person, the Freedom of Opinion, and the
Freedom of Commerce, or Exchange.
Quesnay, who was the real head of the sect, and the founder of
Economics as a Science, and his followers, reflecting on the
intolerable misery they saw around them, struck out the idea that
there must be some great Natural Science, some principles of eternal
truth, founded in Nature itself, with regard to the social relations of
mankind, the violation of which was the cause of the hideous misery
they saw around them in their native land. The name which
oogle
4# On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. 1.
Quesnay first gave to it was Natural Right; and his object was to
y discover and lay down an abstract science of the natural rights of
men in all their social relations towards Government, towards each
other, and towards Property. The term Politique in French
might have expressed this science, but the word in common usage
was so exclusively appropriated to the art of Government, that they
gave it the name of "Political Economy," or Economical Philosophy,"
and hence they took the name of the " Economists." Dupont de
Nemours, one of their number, proposed the name of Physiocratie,
or the government of the nature of things, and hence they came to
be called also the Physiocrates ; but the word having been appropriated
to certain doctrines of the sect which are now shewn to be erroneous,
and abandoned by all Economists of repute, has fallen into disuse,
and the term Political Economy, or Economics, which is now more
generally used, has survived,
i Now it is evident that this wide and extensive scheme comprehends
not only a single science, but a whole multitude of sciences, and we
shall henceforth confine ourselves strictly to that department of
their philosophy which relates to Commerce, or Exchanges.
The sect of the Economists was constituted in 1750. Quesnay's
first publication, Le Droit Naturel, contains a general inquiry into
these natural rights; and he afterwards, in another work called
Maximes GinSrales du Gouvernement Economique d'un Royaume
Agricole, endeavoured to lay down, in a series of thirty maxims, or
general rules, the whole basis of the economy or organisation of
society.
The 23rd of these maxims declares that a nation suffers no loss
by trading with foreigners.
The 24th declares the fallacy of the Balance of Trade (Balance
of Trade).
The 25th says : "Let entire freedom of commerce be maintained; for
the regulation of commerce, both internal and external, the most sure,
the most exact, the most profitable to the nation, and to the State, consists
in entire freedom of competition?
In every country in Europe there were numerous enlightened
persons who advocated Free Trade as beneficial; but the Economists
were the first to lay it down as one of the fundamental rights of
mankind, and as the corner-stone of their Science. These maxims
were adopted as a Code by the sect, and were published in 1759 as
the embodiment of their doctrines, which at once disposes of the
idea that Adam Smith was the originator and creator of Free Trade.
The Maxims of Quesnay entirely overthrew the prevailing system of
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 43
Economics. This was the work of Quesnay and his associates;
and, notwithstanding certain errors and shortcomings mentioned
below, they are unquestionably entitled to be acknowledged as the
founders of Economics and Free Trade.
[Outline of the Doctrine of the Economists^
/
We may now give a brief abstract of the doctrine of the
Economists, by which they vindicated the principle of liberty, and
the right of property.
The Creator has placed man upon the earth with the evident
intention that the race should prosper; and there are certain physical
and moral laws which conduce, in the highest degree, to ensure his
preservation, increase, well-being, and improvement. The correlation
between these physical and moral laws is so close, that if either be
misunderstood, through ignorance or passion, the others are also.
Physical nature, or matter, bears to mankind very much the relation
which the body does to the mind. Hence the perpetual relation of
physical and moral good and evil to each other.
Natural justice is the conformity of human laws and actions to
natural order; and this collection of physical and moral laws existed
before any positive institutions among men. And while their
observance produces the highest degree of prosperity and well-being
among men, the non-observance or transgression of them is the
cause of the extensive physical evils which afflict mankind.
If such a natural order exists, our intelligence is capable of under-
standing it ; for if not, it would be useless, and the sagacity of the
Creator would be at. fault. As, therefore, these laws are instituted
by the Supreme Being, all men and all States ought to be governed
by them. They are immutable and irrefragable, and the best possible
laws ; they are necessarily the basis of the most perfect government,
and the fundamental rule of all positive laws, which are only for the
purpose of upholding that natural order, which is evidently the most
advantageous for the human race.
{The evident object of the Creator being the preservation, the
increase, the well-being, and the improvement of the race, man
necessarily received from his origin, not only intelligence, ljut instincts
conformable to that end. Every one feels himself endowed with
the triple instincts of well-being, sociability, and justice^ He under-
stands that the isolation of the brute is not suitable to his double
nature, and that his physical and moral wants urge him to live in
the society of his equals in a state of peace, goodwill, and concord.
/
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44 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
He also recognizes that other men, having the same wants as himself,
cannot have less rights than himself, and, therefore, he is bound to
respect their rights, so that other men may observe a similar obligation
^ towards him.
\ UThese three ideas — the necessity of work, the necessity of society,
y/\ and the necessity of justice — imply three others — liberty, property,
I and authority — which are the three essential terms of all social order. 3
*■ How could man understand the necessity of labour, or obey the
irresistible instinct of self-preservation, without perceiving, at the
same time, that the instruments of labour, the physical and intellectual
qualities with which he is endowed by Nature, belong exclusively to
himself, that he is master, and the absolute proprietor of his own
person, that he is born, and should remain, free ?
But the idea of liberty cannot spring up in the mind without
associating with it that of Property, in the absence of which the
first would only represent an illusory right without an object. The
freedom the individual has of acquiring useful things by labour
includes necessarily the right of preserving them, of enjoying them,
and of disposing of them without reserve, and also of bequeathing
them to his family, who prolong his existence indefinitely. Thus
liberty conceived in this manner involves, and is dependent on, the
idea of property, which may be conceived in two aspects, as it
regards movable goods, and as it regards the earth, which is the
source from which labour ought to draw them.
At first property was principally movable, but when the cultivation
of the earth was necessary for the preservation, increase, and im-
provement of the race, individual appropriation of the soil became
necessary, because no other system is so proper to draw forth from
the earth all the mass of utilities it can produce; and, secondly,
because collective property would have produced many incon-
veniences as to the sharing of the fruits, which would not arise
from the division of the land, by which the rights of each are fixed
in a clear and definite manner. Property in land is, therefore,
the necessary and legitimate consequence of the principle of
personal and movable property. CEvery man has, therefore, centred
in him by the laws of Providence certain Rights and Duties — the
right of enjoying himself to the utmost of his capacity, and the duty
of respecting similar rights in others. This perfect protection
' of reciprocal rights and duties conduces to production in the
highest degree, as well as to the greatest amount of physical
enjoyments. 1
Thus the Economists established freedom and property as the
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Ch. IIL] History of Economics 45
fundamental right of mankind — Freedom of Person, Freedom of
Opinion, and the Freedom of Commerce or Exchanges; and
the violation of these they maintained to be contrary to the laws
of Providence, and therefore the cause of all evil to men.
Doctrine of the Economists regarding Commerce or Exchanges.
Having now explained how the Economists cleared the way for
the consideration of the positive Science, by sweeping away all
obstructions to the freedom of Commerce or Exchanges, we must
now see how they endeavoured to construct the positive Science
of Commerce or Exchanges.
While they expressly declared that Exchanges, or Commerce,
was one department of Economical Philosophy — and it is to
this department of it that the name of Economics is now restricted
— they unfortunately devised another and an alternative name for
it which, being misinterpreted by a very distinguished French
Economist, has been the cause of all the mischief and confusion
in the Science, and of the lamentable state into which it has fallen
at present
They termed the department of Economical Philosophy relating
to Commerce, or Exchanges, the "Production, Distribution, and
Consumption of Wealth."
It might not be very apparent to the general reader how the
two expressions "Commerce" or "Exchanges" is identical with
that of the " Production, Distribution, and Consumption of Wealth ;"
and we must now explain the meaning of this latter expression
given to it by its authors.
They denned the word " Wealth " to be the material products of
the earth which are brought into Commerce and Exchanged, and
those only. The products of the earth which were consumed by
their owners, and without being exchanged, they termed Biens, but
not Richesse.
Thus Quesnay says, " We must distinguish between goods {Biens)
which have value in use and not value in exchange, and Wealth
(Richesse) which has both value in use and value in exchange. For
instance, the savages in Louisiana enjoy many Biens, such as wood,
game, the fruits of the earth, &c, which are not Richesse, because
they have no value in exchange. But since some kinds of commerce
have been established between them and the French, the English,
the Spaniards, &c, part of these Biens have acquired a value in
exchange, and are become Richesse"
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46 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
So Baudeau says, "Useful and agreeable objects proper for our
enjoyment are called Biens, because they conduce to the preserva-
tion, the propagation, and the well-being of men on the earth.
" But sometimes these Biens*zre not Richesse, because they cannot
be exchanged for other goods, or be used to procure other enjoy-
ments. The products of Nature or the works of Art, the most
necessary or the most agreeable, cease to be Richesse when you lose
the power of exchanging them and of procuring other enjoyments
by means of this Exchange. One hundred thousand feet of the
most beautiful oak in the world would not be Richesse to you in
the interior of North America, where you could not divest yourself
of its possession by means of an Exchange.
" The title Richesse, therefore, supposes two things : First, useful
qualities, which render them Biens ; secondly, the possibility of
exchanging them, which enables these Biens to procure you others,
which constitutes them Richesse"
So also Le Trosne says, "Man is surrounded by wants which
are renewed every day. . . . Whatever they are, it is only from
the earth that he can draw the means of supplying them. This
physical truth, that the earth is the source of all Biens, is so
self-evident that no one can doubt it. . . . But it is not sufficient to
estimate products by their useful qualities: we must consider the
property they have of being exchanged against each other. . . t
Products acquire, therefore, in a state of society, a new Quality,
which springs from the communication of men with each other.
This Quality is Value, which makes the products become Richesse ;
and so there is nothing superfluous, because the excess becomes
the means to obtain what one wants.
"Value consists in the Relation of Exchange which exists be-
tween such and such products. ... In a word, the Quality of
Richesse supposes not only a useful property, but also the possibility
of Exchange ; because Value is nothing but the Relation of Ex-
change. The earth in truth only gives products which have the
physical qualities to satisfy our wants: it is Exchange which
gives them Value — a quality relative and accidental. But as it
is the products themselves which are the sole matter of exchange, it
follows that we can say, with truth, that the earth produces not
only all Biens, but all Richesse"
Thus, the definition of Wealth by the Economists was perfectly
clear and intelligible: it was the material products of the earth
which are brought into Commerce and Exchanged, and these only.
The Economists steadfastly adhered to this doctrine (Wealth).
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Ch. iijj History of Economics 47
In the first place, they declared that Economics has nothing to
do with Value in use or Utility, but only with Value in exchange ;
and, secondly, they restricted the term Wealth to the material
products of the earth only. They steadfastly refused to admit that
Labour and Credit, i.e. Rights of Action, Credits or Debts, and
other Rights, are Wealth, because they alleged that to admit that
Labour and Credit are Wealth would be to maintain that Wealth
can be created out of nothing. They constantly maintained that
man can create nothing, and that ex nihilo nihil fit
Meaning of "Production, Distribution, and Consumption of
Wealth."
By Production the Economists meant obtaining the rude
produce from the earth, and bringing it into Commerce (Production).
But this rude produce is scarcely ever fit for human use. It has
to be fashioned and manufactured in a multitude of ways, and to be
transported from place to place, and perhaps sold and resold more
than once, before it is ultimately purchased for use and enjoyment.
All these intermediate operations of manufacture, transport, and
sale between the original Producer and the ultimate purchaser, the
Economists termed traffic, or Distribution (Distribution), and
all the persons engaged in them they termed Distributors.
' Consommation, or Consumption in the language of the
Economists, and all French writers before them, and also Adam
Smith, meant simply Purchase or Demand ; it involved no idea
of destruction.
Great confusion has been caused by the two French words,
Consotnmafion and Consomption, being represented by only one
English word, Consumption. Now Consotnmation comes from
wnsommer, which comes from the Latin consummare, to complete ;
and Consomption comes from consumer, the Latin consumers, to
destroy. Consommation is the Latin consummation consummation,
or completion (Consumption).
The final purchaser who bought the product for his own use and
enjoyment, and so took it out of commerce, the Economists termed
the Acheteur-consommateur, because he consummated or completed
the transaction.
The Consommateur, or Consumer, was the person for whose
benefit all the preceding operations took place. Production was
only for the sake of Consumption, or Demand ; and Consumption,
or Demand, was the measure of reproduction, because products
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48 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
which remain without Consumption, or Demand, degenerate into
superfluities without value.
The complete passage of a product from the original Producer to
the ultimate Consumer, or Purchaser, through all its intermediate
stages, the Economists termed Commerce, or Exchange; and
as any man, who wished to consume, or purchase, any product*
must have some product of his own to give in exchange for it, he
was also a producer in his turn. Hence, in an exchange, things are
produced and consumed (consommk), or purchased, on each side.
An Exchange has only two essential terms, a Producer, or Seller,
and a Consumer, or Buyer. These are the only two persons
necessary to commerce, and they often exchange directly between
themselves without any intermediate agents.
Hence the " Production, Distribution, and Consumption of
Wealth," as defined by the Economists, meant simply the Com-
merce, or the Exchanges, of the material products of the earth, and
of these only.
But Distribution was often used as synonymous with Consumption.
Hence " Production, Distribution, and Consumption," " Production
and Distribution," and "Production and Consumption," all meant
exactly the same thing — the Commerce or Exchange of the
material products of the earth, and of these only.
It must be carefully observed that these expressions are one and
indivisible ; they must not be separated into their component terms.
They all simply meant Supply and Demand.
The Economists, by restricting the term Wealth to the material
products of the earth, made materiality and labour the accessories
or accidents of Wealth, but they did not make them the essence or
principle of Wealth. The Essence or Principle of Wealth they held
to consist in Exchangeability, because they expressly excluded
from the term Wealth all the material products of the earth which
were not brought into commerce and exchanged.
Now considering that the Economists admitted and declared that
there is a definite and positive Science of Exchanges, or Commerce,
how is it possible to restrict it to the Commerce, or Exchanges, of
the material products of the earth only? It must evidently and
necessarily comprehend all Exchanges and all Commerce, in its
widest extent, and in all its forms and varieties.
There is a gigantic commerce in Labour; there is a colossal
commerce in Rights and Rights of Action, Credits, or Debts, Public
Securities, and other forms of Incorporeal Property ; in fact, this is
the most extensive department of Commerce, or Exchanges. How
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 49
is it possible to exclude the commerce in Labour and the com-
merce in Rights and Rights of Action from the general Science of
Exchanges, or Commerce ?
But even supposing that the Science of Economics were restricted
to the commerce in material things only, it cannot be confined to
the products of the earth only. The land itself is an article of
commerce. Persons buy and sell land. How is it possible to speak
of the "Production, Distribution, and Consumption" of land?.
Moreover, the expression "Production, Distribution, and Con-
sumption of Wealth" comprehends a whole series of Exchanges.
When the farmer produces corn, and offers it for sale to the miller,
that is an Exchange ; when the miller grinds the corn into flour, and
sells it to the baker, that is ah Exchange ; when the baker bakes the
flour into bread, and sells it to the customer, that is an Exchange.
When ships and carriers transport the products from one place to
another, that is an Exchange, for they receive payment in exchange
for their services. When merchants and manufacturers sell goods
to wholesale dealers, that is an Exchange ; when wholesale dealers
sell goods to retail dealers, that is an. Exchange ; when retail dealers
sell goods to their customers, that is an Exchange.
Thus the whole series of transactions which the Economists
included under Distribution are simply a series of Exchanges.
The basis of the Science of Economics is the meaning of the
word Wealth. The Economists admitted that Exchangeability
is the essence and principle of Wealth; but they clogged it with
the limitation that it only applies to material products which are
exchanged, and denied it to Labour and Credit (including all
species of Rights), which equally possess the quality of Exchange-
ability. But this is contrary to the fundamental principles of
Natural Philosophy. Bacon long ago pointed out that when the
Quality, or Concept, which is the basis of the Science, is once
determined, all Quantities whatever which possess that Quality,
however diverse in form they may otherwise be, must be included
among the constituents, or elements, of that Science, even though
they possess no other Quality in common, except that one which
is the basis of the Science. This is what Plato calls the one in the
many, i.e., the same Quality appearing in many diverse forms. It
would be just as rational to restrict the term Force to the force
of men and animals, and to exclude gravitation from the term force,
as to restrict the term Wealth to the exchangeable material products
of the earth, and to exclude Labour and Rights, which equally
possess the quality of Exchangeability, from the term Wealth
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50 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
Contemporary, mercantile, and general writers were dead against
the Economists on the question of excluding Credit from the term
Wealth. They all included Credit under the term Wealth (Credit,
Wealth).
Thus the restriction of the term Wealth to the material products
of the earth is quite untenable, and we have now to see what other
writers have said on the subject
And it must be understood that the determination of the true
meaning of the word Wealth is not merely a matter of vain logo-
machy and curious speculation. On the contrary, not only is this
word the basis of a great Science, but there is none probably which
has so seriously influenced the history of the world and the welfare
of nations, according to the meaning given to it at various periods.
For many centuries the legislation of every nation in the world
was moulded by the meaning given to the word Wealth. The
eminent French economist, J. B. Say, says that during the two
centuries preceding his time fifty years were spent in wars directly
originating out of the meaning given to this word.
Another Economist, Storch, speaking of the mercantile system
which prevailed so long, says: "It is no exaggeration to say that
there are few political errors which have produced more mischief
than the mercantile system. ... It has made each nation regard
the welfare of its neighbours as incompatible with its own ; hence
their reciprocal desire of injuring and impoverishing one another,
and hence that spirit of commercial rivalry which has been the
immediate or remote cause of the greater number of modern wars.
... In short, where it has been the least injurious, it has retarded
the progress of national prosperity ; everywhere else it has deluged
the earth with blood, and has depopulated and ruined some of those
countries whose power and opulence it was supposed it would carry
to the highest pitch."
So Whately says : " It were well if the ambiguities of this word
had done no more than puzzle philosophers. ... It has for centuries
done more, and, perhaps, for centuries to come will do more, to
retard the progress of Europe than all other causes put together."
Now certainly we may be very sure that no wars in future times
will ever again be caused by the meaning of the word Wealth. But,
for all that, is all danger over? Far from it. On the contrary, if
possible, we are menaced with a more terrible danger still. Because
that dread spectre of Socialism, which now threatens war and
revolution to every country on the Continent, and from which this
country is not entirely free, is entirely based, as the Socialists them-
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 5 1
selves say, on the doctrines of Wealth, put forward by Adam Smith
and Ricardo.
These considerations, which are nothing but the literal truth, shew
the gravity and the importance of the inquiry, and we hope that we
shall succeed in removing this stumbling-block to the progress and
apprehension of Economic Science.
Definition of Wealth by Ancient Writer*.
Ancient writers for 850 years held that Exchangeability, pure
and simple, is the sole essence and principle of Wealth — that every-
thing whatever which can be bought and sold, or exchanged, is
Wealth, whatever its nature or its form may be.
Thus Aristotle says (Nicomac. Ethics, book v.) :
"XFllmTa $* A,eyo/A€v ITavra ocrcov 17 d£ta vo/xwryutan /xcr/Kirat ."
uBy the term Wealth we mean all things whose value can be
measured in money"
So the great Roman jurist Ulpian says :
" Ea enim Res est quae emi et venire potest"
" For that is Wealth which can be bought and sold."
In accordance with this J. S. Mill says (Prin. of Pol. Econ. Pre-
Hminary Remarks) : " Everything, therefore, forms a part of Wealth
which has a Power of Purchasing."
Now in these sentences we have a fundamental Concept of the
widest generality, which is fitted to be the basis of a great science.
Out of this single sentence of Aristotle's the whole Science of
Economics is to be evolved, just as the great oak-tree is developed
out of the tiny acorn.
This is the definition which we adopt as the basis of the Science.
A Quantity means anything whatever which can be measured;
hence, an Economic Quantity means Anything whatever which
can be bought and sold, or exchanged ; which possesses the Quality
of Exchangeability ; or whose value can be measured in money ;
no matter what its form or its nature may be.
The sole criterion, then, of anything being Wealth is — Can it be
bought and sold? Can it be exchanged separately and independently
of anything else? Can it be valued in money?
This criterion may seem very simple; but, in fact, to apply it
properly, to discern what is, and what is not, separate and independent
Exchangeable Property, requires a thorough knowledge of some of
the most abstruse branches of Law and Commerce.
b a
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52 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
Three Species of Wealth or Economic* Quantities.
Adopting, then, this definition of Wealth, or of an Economic
Quantity, as Anything whatever which can be bought and sold, or
exchanged, or whose Value can be measured in money, which, from its
generality, is fitted to form the basis of a great Science, we have
next to discover how many Species, or Orders of Quantities, there
are which satisfy this definition, as possessing the Quality of
Exchangeability, or which can be bought and sold, or exchanged, or
whose Value can be measured in money.
I. Material, or Corporeal Wealth. — There are material things
of all sorts, such as lands, houses, money, corn, cattle, timber, herds
of all sorts, jewellery, minerals, and innumerable other material things,
which can be bought and sold, or exchanged, and whose Value can
be measured in money ; therefore they are Wealth by the definition.
II. Immaterial Wealth. — There exists a remarkable work of
antiquity, which is the earliest treatise on an Economical question
that we are aware of. It is a dialogue named the JEryxias, or, On
Wealth. It is attributed to ^schines Socraticus, one of the most
distinguished disciples of Socrates, but critics deny this. Very high
authorities consider that it was written in the early Peripatetic period.
In this dialogue Socrates is made to discuss the nature of Wealth.
He asks, Why are some things Wealth at some places, and not at
others ? And at some times, and not at others ? Why are different
kinds of money Wealth at some places, and not at others ? Socrates
shows that whether things are Wealth or not depends on the Demand
(xpeta) for them. He shows that money is only valuable, and
Wealth, in those places where it can purchase other things; and
that where it cannot purchase, or be exchanged for, other things, it
is not Wealth. He shows that if any other things can purchase
other things, they are Wealth, for just the same reason that money is.
He instanced persons who gained their living by giving instruction
in the various sciences. They were able to purchase the necessaries
of life in exchange for their lessons in science, just in the same way
as they could with money. Therefore, said Socrates, the Sciences
are Wealth — at tiricmjfjLai xp/jfjLara o&rat; and that those who possess
them are richer — TrkovcriwrepoC curt.
When Socrates in this dialogue is made to say that the Sciences are
Wealth, that, of course, is a general term for Labour; for Labour in
Economics is any exertion of human thought or abilities which is
wanted, demanded, and paid for. Socrates in this dialogue shows
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Ch. IIL] History of Economics 53
that the Mind has wants and demands, as well as the body ; and
that things which are wanted and demanded for the Mind, and are
paid for, are equally Wealth as the things which satisfy the wants
and demands of the body, and are paid for.
Labour cannot be seen, nor touched, nor transferred by manual
delivery ; but it can be bought and sold, its Value can be measured
in money, and therefore it is Wealth.
Hence, each of the great Sciences and Professions is a great
Estate, which produces Utilities which are wanted, demanded, and
paid for, as much as any material products ; and are consequently
Wealth, just as much as any material chattels are, because their
Value is measured in money.
Thus, as will be seen hereafter, the author of this dialogue antici-
pated Adam Smith by 1200 years.
Thus, Personal Qualities in the form of Labour were demonstrated
to be Wealth.
Demosthenes shows that Personal Credit is Wealth.
But Personal Qualities may be used as Purchasing Power, or
Wealth, in another form besides that of Labour.
If a merchant enjoys good " Credit," as it is termed, he may go
into the market and buy goods, not with Money, but by giving his
Promise to pay money at a future time ; that is, he creates a Right
of Action against himself. It is a Sale or an Exchange. The
goods become his actual property, exactly as if he had paid for them
with money. This Right of Action is the price he pays for the goods.
It is termed a Credit — in French, a Crbance — because it is not the
Right to any specific sum of money ; but only a Right of Action to
demand a sum of money from the merchant at some future time,
and any one who buys it, or takes it in exchange for goods, does so
only in the belief or confidence that the merchant can pay his Debt
at the stipulated time.
Hence, a merchant's Credit is Purchasing Power, exactly as
Money is. A merchant's Purchasing Power is his Money and his
Credit. They are both equally Wealth, by Mill's own definition.
When a merchant purchases goods with his Credit, instead of with
money, his Credit is valued in money \ because the seller of the goods
accepts his Credit as equal in value to money ; his Credit is valued
in money, exactly as his Labour may be. Hence, by Aristotle and
Mill's definition of Wealth, which is now universally accepted, the
merchant's Personal Credit is Wealth.
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54 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
Thus Demosthenes says {Against Leptines, 484, 20) :
" Svotv dyaOotv ovroiv Ukovrov re #cai irpos avavras ILurre&aOaty
/x€4^ov con to rijs ILitTT€(tis Inrapyov yfiiv."
" 7>kr* A?*^ /tow &W,r of Wealth— Money and General Credit—
the greater is Credit, and we have it"
So also, again (For Phormion, 958) :
" ci Bk tovto dyvocU 8ri n«rris 'A<j>opfirj tuv traa-Qv «m pjeyurrq
irpfc \prjfxaTurp}>v irav av ayvolJ<^€las.,,
"If you were ignorant of this, that Credit is the greatest Capital
of all towards the acquisition of Wealth, you would be utterly
ignorant"
Thus Demosthenes shows that Personal Credit is ayadd — Wealth,
Property, Goods, Chattels — and d^ppy, Capital
Thus, though Personal Credit, like Labour, can neither be seen,
nor handled, nor transferred by manual delivery, yet it can be
bought and sold, or exchanged. Its Value can be measured in
Money; it is Purchasing Power, and, therefore, it is Wealth.
Hence, the Personal Credit of all bankers, merchants, and
traders is an integral and colossal portion of the national Wealth,
just as the industrial faculties of all working men of all kinds are.
So also the Credit of the State, by which it can purchase Money
and other things from persons by giving in exchange for them
the Right to demand a series of future payments from it, is National
Wealth.
The Roman and Greek furists shew that Abstract Right8 and Rights
of Action are Wealth.
III. Incorporeal Property as Wealth.— We have seen that
when a merchant purchases goods with his Credit he gives in
exchange for them, as their price, a Promise to pay at a future
time ; that is, he creates a Right of Action against himself, which is
also called a Credit or a Debt (Credit, Debt). Now, the seller
of the goods, who has acquired this Right of Action, Credit, or
Debt, can go into the market, and purchase other goods with it,
as well as with money ; and this Right of Action, Credit, or Debt,
may circulate in commerce, and effect any number of exchanges,
just like money, until it is paid off and extinguished, and then
it ceases to exist.
So, if a person pays money into his account with his banker,
the banker purchases the money by giving his customer a Credit
in his books, termed, in the technical language of modern banking,.
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 55
a Deposit. That is, the banker creates a Right of Action, Credit,
or Debt against himself, which is the price of the money, and which
entitles the customer to demand back an equal sum of money at
any time he pleases. That is, the banker is bound to buy up
this Right of action against himself at any time the customer
pleases ; or he can transfer this Right of Action to any one else
by means of a Bank Note or Cheque, and then the transferee
acquires the same rights against the banker as his customer had, and
so this Bank Note or Cheque may circulate and effect exchanges,
and discharge debts just like an equal quantity of money, until
it is paid off and extinguished.
Thus, Rights of Action, Credits, or Debts, are vendible com-
modities, just like any material chattels, and their value depends
upon exactly the same principle as the value of anything else,
i.e. whether they can be bought up and paid when due.
So the great Roman Jurist, Ulpian, says (Digest, 18, 4, 17) ;.
" Nomina eorum qui sub condicione vel in diem debent, et emere
et vendere solemus. Ea enim Res est quae emi et venire potest."
" We are accustomed to buy and sell Debts payable on a certain
event or on a certain day. For that is Property which can be bought
and sold,n
But besides Abstract Rights in the form of Credits, or Debts,
there are gigantic masses of Abstract Rights of other kinds, such as
Shares in Commercial Companies, Copyrights, Patents, the Goodwill
of a business, Practices, and a multitude of others, which can all be
bought and sold, or exchanged, or whose Value can be measured in
money ; and, therefore, are Wealth by the now universally-received
definition.
Accordingly, in the Pandects of Justinian, the great Code or
Digest of Roman Law, it is laid down as a fundamental definition,
or principle, that Rights and Rights of Action are included under
the terms Pecunia, Bona, Res, Merx, &c. (Rights).
In the Basilica, which is the great revised Code of the Eastern
Empire published in the ninth and tenth centuries, it is also laid
down that Rights and Rights of Action are included under xpyH-0-7*1*
rpayfiara, oTkos, dyadd, over Col, oixrta acfxivrjs, &c.
Now, Rights and Rights of Action in the abstract form are
not visible to the eye, nor can they be touched, nor transferred
by manual delivery; but, like Labour and Credit, they can be
bought and sold or exchanged, their Value can be measured in
money ; therefore, they are Wealth by the now universally received
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$6 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. l
definition. Rights and Rights of Action in the abstract form are
termed Incorporeal Property, or Incorporeal Wealth.
It is thus seen that the ancients possessed the true scientific
spirit They saw that Exchangeability is the true essence and
principle of Wealth, and they searched out all the quantities which
possess this quality. The author of the Eryxias showed that Labour
is Wealth, because it can be bought and sold. Demosthenes showed
that Personal Credit is Wealth, because it is Purchasing Power ; and
the Roman jurists showed that Rights and Rights of Action are
Wealth, because they can be bought and sold. Thus, after a period
of 800 years, the ancients conquered the whole field of Economics,
because there is nothing which can be bought and sold or ex-
changed, or whose Value can be measured in money, which is not
of one of these three forms : Either it is (1) a Material Commodity,
or it is (2) a Personal Quality in the form of Labour or Credit, or it
is (3) an Abstract Right or Right of Action, Hence, they showed
that there are three orders of Exchangeable, or Economic, Quanti-
ties, and there are no more. Hence, the Science was now complete,
for these are all its constituent elements, and the whole of pure
Economics consists of the Exchanges of these three orders of
Economic Quantities. And as these three orders of Economic
Quantities can be exchanged two and two, in six different ways, it
follows that all Commerce, in its widest extent and in all its different
forms and varieties, consists in these six species of exchanges. This
Science may be designated as Pure, or Analytical, Economics.
The relation which any one of these quantities bears to any
of the others is termed its Value with respect to them.
As the object of the Science is to ascertain the Laws which
govern the relations of these Quantities to each other, and their
changes of relation, it is evidently a mathematical science, for it is a
Science of Variable Quantities ; and its Laws must be brought into
harmony with the Laws of all other Sciences of Variable Quantities ; .
that is, there can only be one great General Law which governs
their relations.
And if any of the great Roman Lawyers, with the materials
he had before him, had ever conceived the idea of constructing
a complete scientific exposition of the principles and mechanism
of the mighty system of Commerce, and the Laws which govern it,
Economics might have been the eldest born of all the Sciences. It
would have been 1500 years in advance of its present state, and it
would have saved centuries of misery, bad legislation, and bloodshed
to the world.
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But it was not to be. There was at that time no Physical Science
in existence to serve as the guide for the construction of a Science
of Variable Quantities, such as Economics. The Science of
Economics will remain a monument to the eternal glory of Bacon,
who strenuously insisted that it was indispensable to create the
Physical Sciences, before it was possible to construct the Sciences
of Society.
Although no ancient writer ever conceived the idea of creating a
great general Science of Economics, or of Commerce, there was
one department of it which they carried to great perfection, namely,
the Commerce in Rights of Action, Credits, or Debts. The Roman
Jurists elaborated the great Juridical Theory of Credit.
The following is a brief sketch of the History of the Theory of
Credit.
Demosthenes was the first to perceive and declare that Credit is
Wealth and Capital.
But Concrete Practice always precedes Abstract Theory.
The Romans invented the business which in modern language is
termed Banking ; the Roman bankers invented Cheques, and Bills
of Exchange ; and the Roman jurists elaborated the great Juridical
Theory of Credit
In the times of the Republic, all the possessions belonged to the
family as a whole, but the Dominus, or the Head of the house, alone
exercised all rights over them. He was accordingly required to keep
a great family ledger, in which all the incidents of his life were
recorded. He was obliged to enter in it all the possessions of the
family, all his trade profits and losses, all his revenues and profits,
his outgoings and expenses of every description, all sums borrowed
and lent, so that the family might see how he had dealt with the
family property. The Romans thus became accustomed to the
Transfer of Debts. These family ledgers were legal evidence of
debts among Roman citizens, receivable in Courts of Justice. The
Dominus was obliged to swear to the truth of his books every five
years before the Censor, and then they were preserved as heirlooms
in the family ; and it was from these family ledgers that the whole
of the modern system of book-keeping and Credit has been
developed.
Some of the elementary principles of Credit were set forth in
Gaius, which was the elementary text-book for students from the age
of the Antonines till Justinian.
But after Gaius, the jurists Paulus, Ulpian, Modestinus, Javolenus,
and Papinian — the greatest jurists the world ever saw — worked out
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58 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
the complete juridical Theory of Credit, except only on one point.
And from the emphatic way in which certain elementary principles
are laid down, it is quite evident that there were silly persons who
chattered about Credit at Rome, just as there are at the present day.
The principles elaborated by these jurists were incorporated in the
Pandects of Justinian, and in the Basilica, and have been the
mercantile law of Europe. They are contained in every Continental
text of Jurisprudence. But upon this subject English legal text-
books are lamentably defective ; and no scholastic Economist ever
had any more notion of them than a child of six years old has of
the triple expansion engines of the Campania. These principles-
have, by a statute which came into operation in 1875, been enacted
as Law in England.
The doctrines of the Roman Jurists were, however, inadequate
for the complete Theory of Credit, as they chiefly regarded the
subject from the Creditor's side, and only very slightly from the
Debtor's side.
But in every Obligation there are two sides — the Creditor's, or the
Active or Positive side, and the Debtor's, or the Passive or Negative
side. Now it is evident that the complete Theory of Credit must
be developed simultaneously, both from the Creditor's and the
Debtor's side. But the latter requires principles of mathematics
which have only been fully understood by mathematicians them-
selves, and introduced into popular treatises, within the last sixty
years.
I have now laid bare the foundations of Economic Science. Like
Botta and Layard at Nineveh; Schliemann at Troy, Argos, and
Mycenae ; Petrie, and many other explorers in Egypt — I have swept
away the rubbish and folly which has accumulated over the
doctrines of the ancients for centuries, and laid bare the solid
and impregnable foundations upon which the majestic structure
of Economic Science is to be erected.
Continuation of the Doctrine of the Economists.
The Economists on Money.
One of the most important services the Economists rendered to
Economics was to re-establish the true doctrine of the nature and
use of Money.
The Mercantile System held that Money is the only species of
Wealth ; the evident absurdity of this doctrine was so great that it
naturally led to reaction, and, as usual in such cases, opinion went
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to the other extreme. It was held that Money is not Wealth at all,
but only the Sign, or Representative, of Wealth.
This naturally led to the doctrine that as Money is only the means
of obtaining other things, it is wholly indifferent what it is made of,
and that it is only the command of the Sovereign which gives it
Value. It was maintained that the Prince might diminish the
quantity of metal in the coin, or even debase it, as much as he
pleased, and still affix any value he pleased to it.
The Economists shewed that Money is neither all Wealth, nor is
it not Wealth ; but it is simply a species of merchandise, which is
used for a particular purpose, to facilitate commerce. It is found
more convenient in commerce, instead of exchanging products
directly for one another, to exchange them for some intermediate
merchandise, which is itself universally exchangeable. Such an
operation is termed a Sale. Any merchandise whatever might
have been chosen for this purpose, but there are many reasons
why Gold and Silver are superior to all other species. The
merchandise which is used for this purpose is termed Money.
But this kind of exchange differs in no way from any other, and
the Money given in exchange is the Equivalent of the mer-
chandise. Thus, though every one agrees to take Money in
exchange for products, it is not the Sign, or Representative, of
the products, but their Equivalent. Money is, therefore, nothing
but one species of merchandise, and any other merchandise might
have been made money. Hence, though money has uses of its
own, yet its Value, or exchangeable power, depends upon exactly
the same laws as the value of any other merchandise. Money,
therefore, is Wealth in itself, but only a very small part of the
general Wealth.
The Economists only admitted an Exchange to be a transaction
in which each party obtained a satisfaction, or something which he
desired for use: that is, when the desire of each party was con-
summated, or completed.
Such an Exchange is termed Barter. But in the intercourse of
society such Exchanges are comparatively rare. Persons want
usually to obtain things from others, while those others want nothing
from them. To obviate the inconveniences which would take place
if no one could get what he wanted unless he had something at the
same time to offer the other party which he wanted, people hit upon
the plan of adopting some particular kind of merchandise which
should be universally exchangeable. The buyer, therefore, gave the
seller of the product an equivalent quantity of this universally
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6o On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
exchangeable merchandise, so that he could get any satisfaction
he pleased from someone else. The person, however, who has
received the Money has not got a Satisfaction ; his desire is not
Consummated, or Completed. In order to obtain a satis-
faction, he must exchange away the money for something else he
does desire. Hence the Economists called a Sale a Demi-
Exchange.
Le Trosne says : " There is this, difference between an Exchange
and a Sale, that in the Exchange everything is completed (consommb)
for each of the parties ; they have the thing which they desired to
obtain, and have only to enjoy it. In the Sale, on the contrary,
it is only the buyer who has gained his object, because it is only
he who is in a condition to enjoy. But everything is not ended for
the seller."
And again: "Exchange arrives directly at its object, which is
completion (consommation) : there are only two terms, and it is
ended in a single contract. But a contract in which money inter-
venes is not completed (consommi), because the seller must become
a buyer either by himself, or by the interposition of him to whom
he shall transfer his money. There are, therefore, to arrive at the
completion (consommation), which is the final object, at least four
terms and three parties, one of whom intervenes twice."
In fact, although Money is an Equivalent merchandise to the
product it is exchanged for, its real use and purpose is to be a
Right or Title to obtain anything else which its possessor desires.
Hence its true nature is that of a Bill of Exchange on the
general community.
Thus Baudeau says : " This coined Money in circulation is
nothing, as I have said elsewhere, but Effective Titles on the
general mass of useful and agreeable enjoyments which cause the
well-being and propagation of the human race.
" It is a kind of Bill of Exchange, or Order, payable at the
will of the bearer.
" Instead of taking his share in kind of all matters of subsistence,
and all raw produce annually growing, the Sovereign demands it in
Money, the Effective Title, the Order, the Bill of Exchange."
Hence the Economists saw clearly that Money is only the highest
form of Credit, a truth which we have shown a long line of Jurists
and Economists have seen (Money).
Money, then, being only an Order, or Bill of Exchange, on all
the products of the country, and its only use being to facilitate the
exchanges of products, a substitute may be found for it. The
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Economists showed that instead of the quantity of Money in a
country being the measure of its wealth, it is generally the contrary.
In rich countries the valuable paper of rich merchants supplies the
place of money, and is itself an object of commerce just like money.
It is only in poor and barbarous countries, where no one has con-
fidence in his neighbour, that a large stock of money is required.
The use of more money than is absolutely required is a great loss
to a country, because it can only be purchased with an equivalent
amount of products, and their value is thus withdrawn from being
employed in productive operations. Any country which has plenty
of products can at any time purchase any amount of money it may
require. The Economists, therefore, strongly urged the entire
abolition of all restrictions on the free export of money, and also
the entire abolition of usury laws.
The Economists termed a Sale a Demi-Exchange. The Exchange
was completed when the seller of the product, who had obtained
money for it himself, procured some object for it which he desired.
Thus, a wine-merchant may have sold wine to his clients, and got
paid for it in money. But he can make no direct use of the money:
he can neither eat it, nor drink it, nor clothe himself with it. It is
only when he has got the food, clothes, books, etc., which he wants,
that the Exchange is completed.
For this reason Money is called the Medium of Exchange.
But the Economists also called a Sale Circulation, and the
number of sales was the amount of the Circulation.
Hence, Money was also called the Medium of Circulation, or
the Circulating Medium.
The Economists on the Balance of Trade.
During the prevalence of the Mercantile System, Money was
held to be the only wealth, from which doctrine the consequence
naturally followed that in every exchange one side must gain and
the other side must lose. This doctrine was the cause of many
commercial wars.
The Economists held that in an Exchange neither side gains or
loses. This was an advance on the preceding doctrine of the
Balance of Trade, and they proclaimed the falsity of that doctrine
as then held They held that there is always an Exchange of equal
value for equal value. From this doctrine, which they maintained
with unflinching pertinacity, they drew the most extraordinary con-
sequences, as we shall have to show immediately.
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62 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
The Economists on Productive Labour, and on Sterile or
Unproductive Labour.
We have now to notice a remarkable and distinctive doctrine
of the Economists.
They denned Productive Labour to be Labour which left a
Profit after defraying its Cost.
They maintained that agriculture and Labour, that is, Labour
employed in obtaining all sorts of raw produce from the earth, is
the only species of Productive Labour ; or the only one which leaves
a surplus Profit after defraying its Cost.
The surplus of the raw produce of the earth, after it has defrayed
all the Cost of its Production, the Economists termed the Produit
Net ; and they alleged that it is the sole augmentation of National
Wealth, and that all Taxation should come out of it.
They maintained that all other Labour expended on the raw
produce of the earth, either in fashioning it, or in manufacturing it,
or in transporting it from place to place, or in selling and re-selling
it, is Sterile and Unproductive, and adds nothing to the Wealth
of the Nation. And they maintained that neither the Labour of
artisans, nor the operations of Commerce in any way enrich the
country.
They alleged that the Labour of artisans is Sterile, or Unpro-
ductive, because, though their Labour adds to the value of the
product, yet during the process of the manufacture the labourer
consumes his subsistence, and the value added to the product only
represents the value of the subsistence destroyed during the Labour.
Hence in this case, though there is an augmentation of Value, there
is no augmentation of Wealth.
Again, they maintained that Commerce cannot enrich a country,
because it is always an exchange of equal value for equal value.
Over and over again the Economists alleged that Commerce being
only an exchange of equal values, neither side can gain or lose.
They held that the only use of Commerce is to vary and multiply
the means of enjoyment, but that it does not add to national Wealth,
or, if it does, it is only by giving a value to the products of the earth
which might otherwise fail in finding a market. They contended
also that as all exchanges are mere equal value for equal value, the
same principles apply to sales, and that the gains which traders make
are no increase of Wealth to the nation.
The Economists maintained these doctrines through long and
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 63
repeated arguments, and they came to be known as their distinctive
doctrines. How men of the ability of the Economists could
maintain that neither the Labour of artisans nor Commerce can
enrich a nation, with the examples of Tyre, Carthage, Venice,
Florence, Holland, England, and innumerable other places before
them, is incomprehensible. With such patent, glaring facts before
them, it is surprising that they were not led to suspect the truth
of their reasoning. It is one of the aberrations of the human
intellect which we can only wonder at and not explain.
With such views they held that the internal Commerce of a
country conduces nothing to its Wealth, and foreign Commerce
very little. They called foreign Commerce only a pis-aller. One
truth, however, they perceived. They saw that Money is the most
unprofitable merchandise of any to import, and that merchants
never import Money when they can import products. Therefore
they called the import of Money in foreign Commerce only the
pis-aller of a pis-alter.
Dogma of the Economists that Labour and Credit are not to be
admitted to be Wealth.
The Economists restricted the term Wealth to the material
products of the earth which are brought into commerce and
exchanged. That is, they admitted that Exchangeability is the
real essence and principle of Wealth, but that only material Ex-
changeable Quantities are to be included under that title. From
this it is evident that they were not students of Bacon, or they
would have seen that the immortal creator of Inductive Philosophy
expressly lays down that when once the Quality, or Concept, has
been determined as the basis of a great Science, all quantities
whatever which possess that quality, or attribute, must be included
in the science, however diverse in form or matter. They alleged
that to admit Labour and Credit, both as Personal Credit and
Rights of Action, to be Wealth, would be to admit that Wealth
can be created out of Nothing. They repeated a multitude of
times that Man can create Nothing, and that Nothing can come out
of Nothing. We have already seen that the ancients demonstrated
that Labour and Credit of both forms are Wealth, in sublime
defiance of the dogma that Nothing can come out of Nothing.
Le Trosne endeavours to point out why Labour, or Personal
Services, are not Wealth. Because, he says, they are only relative to
the person ; they are not transmissible, nor inheritable, nor transfer-
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64 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
able; they do not result in a product which can be transferred,
and whose value can be determined by competition ; whereas pro-
ducts have a value in themselves, and acquire one by industry,
which may be resold.
But the answer to this is clear. The essence and principle of
Wealth is solely Exchangeability ', and if a quantity can be exchanged
once, and is paid for, it is Wealth. There is no necessity that
it should be transmissible, or inheritable, or transferable. By
the Law of Continuity^ if it is Exchangeable once it is as much
Wealth as if it were transferable a hundred times, and inheritable.
A baker bakes a bun, and a customer comes in and buys it, and eats
it. It is destroyed, and cannot be resold or inherited ; it was only
exchanged once. But had it no value? And was it not Wealth?
Suppose a person does a service, and is paid a pound for it, and a
baker sells a pound's worth of bread, is not the service equal in
value to the bread ? What does it matter to either of these persons
how soon their product is destroyed, so long as they are paid for it ?
Le Trosne's argument is a direct violation of the Law of Continuity.
Le Trosne is equally unsuccessful in his endeavour to exclude
Credit from the title of Wealth.
He admits that the quality of Wealth depends purely on Ex-
changeability, but distinguishes between Money, which has Lntrinsic
value, and bills which have only value from the presumed solvency
of the debtor.
Le Trosne himself says that Value is not a quality absolute and
inherent in things, but proceeds entirely from Exchangeability.
Hence, to speak of Money having Intrinsic Value is evidently a
contradiction in terms (Value). Money has no value except what
people agree to give in exchange for it ; and if it were placed among
a people who would give nothing for it, it would have no value,
as the author of the Eryxias pointed out long ago. A bill has
value for precisely the same reason that money has, namely, that the
debtor is bound to give money for it at a certain time. It is true
that if the debtor fails the bill loses its value, but that is just what
happens to money if it is placed where it cannot be exchanged.
Hence, both money and a bill have value for the same reason,
and lose their value under the same circumstances. Hence, it
is clear that the value of money is only more general than that
of a bill. It is only a difference in degree, but not in kind.
Moreover, a Credit in any form, written or unwritten, may endure
for any length of time until it is paid off and extinguished ; it may
be transferred any number of times, and it is inheritable.
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 65
Now it is not surprising that Quesnay, who was a physician,
should not have rightly apprehended the nature of Credit But
Le Trosne was an advocate; he must have studied Roman Law.
He must have known that Incorporeal Property of all sorts, Rights
and Rights of Action, are expressly included under Pecuniay Bona,
RtSi Merxy in Roman and in every system of Law ; and, therefore,
we may well feel surprised at his difficulty in admitting Credit to be
Wealth.
In fact, the Economists fell into exactly the same error with
regard to Credit as they had delivered the world from with regard
to Money. In the reaction against the Mercantile System, it was
said that Money is only a Sign, or Representative, of wealth. The
Economists shewed that Money is not a Sign, or Representative,
of Wealth, but an actual species of Wealth, or merchandise, itself.
But they saw that though a species of Wealth itself, its use is to be
exchanged for other things. Hence, they repeatedly called it an
Order, or Bill of Exchange, or a Title to be paid in money.
Now, Le Trosne says that Credit is not Wealth, but only a Title
to be paid in Wealth.
It is somewhat remarkable that it escaped the sagacity of the
Economists that if Money be an Order, or Title, or Bill of Exchange,
it follows that a Bill of Exchange, or other form of Credit, must be
a species of Money. For Credit bears the same relation to Money
that Money does to goods, as the great American Jurist, Daniel
Webster, found out long ago. And as Money is not a Sign, or
Representative, of goods, but is exchangeable for them, so neither
is Credit the Sign, or Representative, of Money, but is separate
and independent merchandise, which is exchangeable for Money.
Incorporeal Property of all sorts is a mass of Exchangeable Property,
or merchandise, and is the subject of the most gigantic commerce
in modern times, and can by no possibility be excluded from the
general Science of Exchanges, or Commerce.
Under the article Wealth, we have shown what a facile answer can
be given to the dogma of the Economists that man can create
Nothing, and that Nothing can come out of Nothing,
The doctrine of the Economists that agricultural Labour is the
only species of Productive Labour was not mere logomachy. They
based their whole theory of taxation upon it ; they maintained that
all taxation should be laid directly on the Produit Net of land, and
that all other classes of persons should be exempt. But we may
say that as they maintained that all commercial profits are made at
the expense of the State, it seems very strange to hold that all these
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66 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
profits should be exempted from contributing to the wants of the
State. And further, as they held that all these profits are obtained
at the expense of the original producers, it seems very hard that all
taxation should be laid on the unfortunate producers, and that all
those who made profits at their expense should go free-
Agricultural producers had, therefore, the greatest interest in
inquiring if the doctrine of the Economists was true, that agriculture
is the only form of Productive Labour.
One great merit the Economists had, they clearly defined every
term they used. Their doctrines seemed to be logically unassailable,
provided that their fundamental dogmas were right. But their
doctrines provoked inquiry and reaction ; men who were labouring
in all sorts of vocations which were useful to the community, were
roused to indignation at being stigmatised as sterile and unproductive.
Men were astounded to hear that a nation cannot be enriched by
Labour and Commerce. The consequences which the Economists
drew from their doctrine were so startling, and so contrary to patent,
undeniable facts, that clear-sighted men began to inquire, Is it true
that in an Exchange, or Commerce, neither side gains ?
The Economists founded a New Order of Sciences.
The Economists have the immortal glory of having founded a
New Order of Sciences, and having realised the conception of
Bacon, that the Sciences of Society must be studied with exactly
the same care, and by the same methods, as the Physical Sciences
are, and that the study of the Physical Sciences must precede the
study of the Sciences of Society.
They established absolute freedom of Commerce in every particular
on a great moral basis as the fundamental right of mankind, proved
to be true equally by reasoning and experience; and they only missed
the glory of seeing it established as national policy by the French
Revolution. In 1774, Turgot, the most illustrious friend of Quesnay,
was appointed Prime Minister of France, and had the satisfaction of
abolishing all restrictions on the internal commerce and export of
corn, and was thus enabled to gladden the heart of his dying master
by seeing the first-fruits of his philosophy. And although this great
man was driven from power by the selfish aristocracy whom he
would probably have saved from the catastrophe which was impending
over them, Free Trade doctrine had made such progress, that in
1786 Mr. Pitt concluded a treaty with France, by which all im-
pediments to the free intercourse between the nations and all their
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 67
possessions were abolished, and only subject to the payment of
moderate duties.
But the deluge of the French Revolution swept away this beneficent
work, and replunged the nations into Economic darkness, from which
England only began to emerge in 1822; and the glory of finally
assuring the triumph of Commercial liberty in England accrued to
the disciples of Adam Smith.
It is sometimes urged that the Economists made the science of
Political Economy too dogmatic, or & priori. But this censure
must be taken with a qualification. If we knew all the true
principles of all things, then science would be entirely a priori.
As Bacon long ago pointed out, the very perfection of science is to
attain the & priori state; and the more true principles are discovered,
the more it approaches the & priori state. Now the Economists,
contemplating the position of man on the earth, and the evident
intention of the Creator, arrived at the principle inductively that
Freedom of Person, Opinion, and Contract, or Exchange, are the
fundamental rights of mankind, most conducive to human happiness,
increase, and improvement, and that all violations of them are
injurious to the human race.
Adopting, then, these fundamental principles, they found a state
of society existing, altogether violating these rights, and, therefore,
afflicted with innumerable evils. And has not history amply vindicated
their doctrines ? For what have brought the greatest evils on men ?
Slavery, Religious Persecution, and Commercial Restrictions. During
the last 1 800 years, what have been the causes of the greatest number
of wars? History answers — Religion and Commerce. If the
doctrines proclaimed by the Economists had always been held to be
true, as they now are by all enlightened persons, nine-tenths of the
wars which have desolated the earth during the last eighteen centuries,
would never have occurred.
The great speculators of the middle ages held the material world
in low esteem, as unworthy of the attention of philosophers. But it
is the glory of the Baconian Philosophy to have extended the
dominion of mind over matter, and brought into subjection and
turned to profit, the forces of Nature. The philosophers who
proclaimed that Law is of Divine institution, and that there is a
system of law which is innately right, anterior to all human laws,
confined their ideas to moral rights. But it is the glory of the
Quesnayan, or Economical Philosophy, to have shewn that there is
a great moral relation existing, not only among men, but connecting
man with the material world, most intimately connected with the
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68 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
well-being of the human race, which is capable of being discovered
and established by human reason, as well as any of the other
sciences, which are rightly considered as the triumphs of the human
intellect. Thus Bacon extended the dominion of mind over matter,
and Quesnay ascertained the rights of man relating to matter.
The Philosophy of the Economists differs from all others in taking
the individual man as the basis of society. Almost all other systems
hold the individual as subordinate to society, and it is certain that
individual property is not that which originally prevailed throughout
the world. But instead of sacrificing man to society, the Economists
declared that society is only instituted for the purpose of preserving
and defending the rights of the individual. "Governments," says
Turgot, " are apt to immolate the well-being of individuals to the
pretended right of society. They forget that society is only made
for individuals, and that it was only instituted to protect the right of
all in insuring the performance of mutual duties."
How much in advance of their age the Economists were, can
only be appreciated by those who will take the pains to acquire a
knowledge of the state of society and opinion, when they lived. It
is manifestly quite impossible to give any adequate picture of that in
the limits of this work. It is sufficient to say that they were the
leaders of mankind in that great change or movement, as it has been
called, of society from Status to Contract^ and their principles are
constantly gaining influence throughout the world. Therefore,
although certain portions of their doctrines may be erroneous, and
have been set aside by subsequent Economists, they are entitled to
imperishable glory in the history of mankind.
Condillac—Adam Smith.
The amazing doctrine of the Economists, that neither the
industry of artisans nor commerce enriches a nation — so contrary
to the plainest facts of history, but which they maintained with
incomprehensible obstinacy — naturally produced a reaction against
them. Men began to inquire whether their dogma, that in an
exchange neither side gains or loses, upon which these assertions
rested, was true. Moreover, men who were performing services
for the public were indignant at being stigmatised as sterile and
unproductive. The first to declare against them were the Italian
Economists; but in so very general an outline as this we have
no space to give an account of them, as they never formed a
distinct school. There was a cluster of writers, such as Verri,
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 69
Beccaria, Genovesi, Delfico, and many others, who ardently advo-
cated Freedom of Trade, but they never formed a school, as the
French and English Economists did; and no Italian work was
ever adopted as a national text-book, as Adam Smith, Ricardo,
and Mill were in England, or J. B. Say was in France.
In the same year, 1776, appeared simultaneously two works
which were expressly designed to overthrow the system of the
Economists, viz., Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations^ and Condillac's
Le Commerce et le Gouvernement These works, though apparently
different in name, were similar in conception. They both begin
by taking the Theory of Value, or of free commerce, as the
natural order of things, and then afterwards consider the effects
of interference by Government. They were the friends and as-
sociates of the Economists, and emanated from their school ;
but they both revolted against the doctrine that manufacturing
and commercial industry do not enrich a nation. Moreover,
they both maintained that in an exchange both sides gain. Smith's
work attained immediate popularity, but Condillac's fell stillborn
from the press, and never attracted the slightest attention,1 and
the whole subject of Economics was entirely forgotten in France
after the fall of Turgot
Condillac's is a very remarkable work, and deserves attention.
It is called Le Commerce et Le Gouvernement considSris relativement
P un d V autre. It is tinged in a few places with the errors of
the Economists, but he rebelled against their classing artisans,
manufacturers, and merchants as unproductive labourers. He also
argued against the doctrine of the Economists, that in an exchange
neither side gains or loses; on the contrary, he maintains that
both sides gain, which Boisguillebert, the morning star of modern
Economics, had asserted before him.
Condillac intended to have published three divisions of his work
— the first, in which the principles of Economic Science, or Com-
merce, are explained; the second, in which the relations of
Commerce, or Economics, to the Government, and their reciprocal
influence over each other, are investigated — and under this division
comes Taxation; and the third, containing a collection of practical
examples showing the application of the principles developed in
the two preceding parts. Unfortunately, the third part was never
published.
Condillac begins at once by saying that Economic Science is
1 M. Michel Chevalier did me the honour to say that I had discovered
Condillac.
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jo On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
the Science of Commerce or Exchange, thereby only expressing
the idea of the Economists as to the "Production, Distribution,
and Consumption of Wealth" in a much more simple and in-
telligible form, and also, which is a great advantage, in one which
is General; for the Science of Commerce must necessarily embrace
all branches of Commerce.
He begins by investigating the foundation of the Value of things,
and shows that it originates entirely from the wants and desires
of men. This want, or estimation, is called Value.
As people feel new wants they learn to make use of things which
they did not before. They give, therefore, value at one time to
things to which at another time they do not.
Thus Condillac, in accordance with the ancients and all the
Italian Economists (Value), places the origin and source of Value
in the human mind, and not in labour, which is the ruin of English
Economics.
But people have come to regard Value as an absolute quality
which is inherent in things, independently of the opinion we have
of them ; and this confusion of ideas is the source of bad reasoning.
Value is founded on Estimation.
Value, therefore, exists before an Exchange. Condillac blames
the Economists for saying that Value consists in the relation of one
thing exchanged for another. This criticism of Condillac's, how-
ever, is overstrained, because, unless there be an exchange, there is
no manifestation of Value, there is no phenomenon which can be the
subject of Economic Science. Economics has nothing to do with
impotent desires of the mind which have no external manifestation,
but only with effective desires which produce a phenomenon, or an
effect. So dynamics has nothing to do with latent forces which
give no outward sign of their existence, but only with the phenomena
produced by forces. So Credit, in the popular sense, means the
estimation of a man's solvency held by the public, but Economic
Science has nothing to do with a man's Credit until he produces
an Economic phenomenon by making a purchase with it. That is,
until he makes a purchase by giving a Promise to pay in exchange
for goods or services, and then that promise to pay, or right to
demand payment, or Debt, is Credit in its legal, commercial, and
economic sense.
Condillac lays down as a fundamental doctrine : " A thing has
not value because it has cost much, as people suppose, but money
is spent in producing it because it has Value." Every one of
common sense will give his assent to this doctrine, and it is the
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 7 1
one by which Whately sent a deadly shaft into the Economics of
Smith and Ricardo.
CondiUac then shows that all variations in Value are caused by
the variations in what is called the Law of Supply and Demand ;
and, therefore, there is no such thing as absolute price. The price
varies from market to market, and is always settled by competition ;
and it is useless and dangerous to prevent these variations.
Condillac then shows how commerce augments the mass of riches.
What, then, do merchants effect if, as is commonly said, an exchange
is an equal value given for an equal value? If that were true, it
would be useless to multiply exchanges, and there would always be
the same mass of riches. It is, however, false that in an exchange
the values are equal. On the contrary, each party gives less and
receives more. If not, there could be no gain on either side. But
both sides gain, or ought to do so, for this reason, that Value has
no reference except to our wants, and that which is more to one
is less to the other, and reciprocally. The source of error is in
supposing that things have an absolute Value, and, therefore, people
think that in an Exchange they give and receive an equal Value.
Each, however, gives less and receives more, because he gives what
he wants less, and receives what he wants more.
Condillac then discusses wages, and shows why wages differ in
different employments. He defends the right of property and
bequest He discusses the nature and uses of Money, and agrees
with the Economists. He observes that the use of Money as a
measure of Value has given rise to the confusion about value. If
men had continued to traffic by way of barter, they would have seen
clearly that they always gave less and received more. But as soon
as Money was introduced, they naturally thought that it was an
exchange of equal values, because each was then valued at the same
quantity of Money.
By means of Money the respective values of quantities of corn
and wine may be measured, and then men see nothing in their
values except the Money, which is their measure. All other con-
siderations are lost sight of; and because this quantity is the same,
they think that each of the quantities is equal in value. But the
comparative gains of the parties are to be estimated by the intensity
of their relative wants, and not by the absolute amount of Money.
The merchant buys things wholesale, and sells in detail, and
receives back the price. Thus continual small sales replace the
sum spent in purchasing in gross; and when this replacement is
made, purchases are again made in gross, to be replaced in detail.
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72 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. i.
Money is, therefore, always being scattered to be again collected
into reservoirs, as it were, from which it is again spread by a
multitude of small canals, which bring it back to its first reservoirs,
whence it is again scattered, and to where it again returns. This
continual movement, which collects it to scatter it, and scatters it
to collect it, is called Circulation* And this Circulation mani-
festly means an exchange at each movement. If there is no
exchange, it is not Circulation. Mere transport of Money is not
circulation. In circulation the money must, as it were, transform
itself into something else. Credit, however, is used to a great extent
instead of Money, and performs the same functions.
Condillac earnestly advocates universal Free Trade. He ridicules
the idea of a million of gold and silver being wealth any more
than a million of other productions. Products are the first wealth.
What will you do if other nations, who reason as ill as you
do, wish also to draw your gold and silver to themselves?
That is what they will try. Every nation will, therefore, try to
prevent foreign merchandise from coming to them. And if they
succeed, it is a necessary consequence that their own merchandise
will not go anywhere else. For wishing to keep each to itself all
the profits of trading, they will cease to trade with one another,
and thus they will lose all profits. Such is the effect of prohibitions.
Who yet dares to be sure that Europe will open its eyes ? I wish
it would, but I know the force of prejudice, and I don't expect it.
In short, commerce is not for Europe an exchange of works, in
which each nation finds a profit ; it is a state of war in which each
tries to rob the other. They think, as they did in times of barbarism,
that nations can only grow rich by robbing their neighbours.
Condillac having thus in the first part traced the grand outlines
of Economic Science, and shown that universal Free Trade is the
proper order of things, in the second part takes universal Free Trade
as the basis of his argument, and examines in succession the
mischievous consequences produced by all violations of, and attacks
on, the principle. These are wars, custom houses, taxes on industry,
privileged and exclusive companies, taxes on consumption, tamperings
with the currency, government loans, paper money, laws about the
export and import of corn, tricks of monopolists, the commercial
jealousy of nations, and other things. The effects of each of these
are examined with admirable skill.
Such is a brief outline of the first two parts of this work. The
third was, unfortunately, never written. Although we have been
constrained by our limits to give but a few points, the analysis we
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Ch. ill J History of Economics 73
have given will show the general scope of this excellent work, and
its great importance is manifest, for it is the true foundation of
modern Economics.
Condillac expressly declares the true function of Economics to be
the Science of Commerce. And in dealing with the subject, we see
the immense superiority of a mathematical and metaphysical mind ;
for he places the source of Value in the human mind, in wants and
desires, or in Demand, as the ancients and the Italian Economists
did; and having done so, he naturally shows that all variations in
Value depend on variations in Demand and Supply. That is, he
instinctively, as a physical philosopher, never dreams that there can
be more than one fundamental theory of Value. He, as every
physicist who really paid attention to the subject, would have been
utterly aghast at the notion that the science could be based on six
or seven fundamentally conflicting theories of Value, as is the fashion
at the present day.
It is true that Condillac's work can by no means be considered
as a complete treatise, and it requires immense development But
it lays down the broad, general outlines of true Economics. Smith's
work and Condillac's were published in the same year. Smith's
obtained universal celebrity in a very short time. Condillac's was
utterly neglected, but yet in scientific spirit it is infinitely superior
to Smith. It is beyond all question the most remarkable work that
had been written on Economics up to that time, and it plays a most
important part in the history of the science. The whirligig of time
is now bringing about its revenges, for all the best European and
American Economists are now gravitating to the opinion that
Condillac's is the true conception of Economics. The beautiful
clearness and simplicity, the instinct of the true physicist, are visible
throughout ; at length he will receive justice, and, after the neglect of
1 20 years, he will emerge as the true founder of modern Economics.
We have now to speak of Condillac's far more fortunate con-
temporary, Adam Smith, whose work originated from the same
causes as Condillac's, namely, the doctrine that in an Exchange
neither side gains nor loses ; that no labour but agricultural is
productive ; and that the labour of artisans, manufacturers,
merchants, and traders is sterile and unproductive, and does not
enrich a nation.
Adam Smith, who first published a work on Economics which
greatly influenced public opinion in this country, was born at
Kirkcaldy, in Fifeshire, just opposite Edinburgh, on the 5 th June,
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74 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
1723, a posthumous son of the Comptroller of Customs there. He
was sent to the University of Glasgow, where he gained a Snell
exhibition to Balliol College, Oxford. He resided at Oxford seven
years. In 1748 he delivered some lectures on rhetoric and belles
lettres in Edinburgh, under the patronage of Lord Karnes. In 1751
he was appointed Professor of Logic, and in the following year
Professor of Moral Philosophy, in the University of Glasgow. In
his lectures it is said that he advocated the doctrines of Free Trade,
which were then widely adopted by the most enlightened men in
France, Italy, and Spain. But no account of these lectures, not
even one line of them, has been preserved, so that we have no
means of comparing his views then with those he published in 1776.
But even if he did teach Free Trade then, he was in no sense its
creator. Many writers had advocated Free Trade long before him.
The Economists published their code of doctrine in 1759, in which
free exchange was asserted to be one of the fundamental rights of
mankind, and there were numerous and powerful advocates of Free
Trade in Italy and Spain, fifteen years before Smith published a line.
Turgot carried out immense reforms in the direction of Free Trade
in 1774. How did these writers and statesmen learn Free Trade
from Smith, when his work was not published till 1776 ? Smith has
himself done sufficient services to Economics, and his reputation
does not require the advances and services done by other persons to
be attributed to him.
In 1759 he published his professional lectures on the Theory of
the Moral Sentiments, a work which gained a rapid reputation, and
attracted the attention of the guardians of the young Duke of
Buccleugh to him. In 1760 he accepted the appointment of tutor
to the Duke, and in March, 1764, he set out with him for the
Continent. Passing through Paris, he resided for about eighteen
months at Toulouse. It is impossible to say whether Smith had
any knowledge of the doctrines of the Economists while he was at
Glasgow ; but he must naturally have been attracted to them when
in France. At Christmas, 1765, Smith and his charge went to Paris,
where they stayed about a year. While there he formed an intimacy
with the Economists, and held Quesnay, their chief, in such esteem,
that he intended to have dedicated the Wealth of Nations to him,
only he died before it was published.
At the end of 1766 Smith returned to Scotland, and settled at
Kirkcaldy, where he remained ten years, during which he was
occupied with the composition of the Wealth of Nations, which was
published in 1776.
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 75
The Wealth of Nations is divided into five books, the first two of L
which only concern our present purpose, as giving the positive part
of the Science as understood by him. The third book is on the
different progress of opulence in different nations ; the fourth book
is a formal refutation of the Mercantile system, and the doctrines
of his friends, the Economists ; and the fifth is on the revenues of
the State. •
We have given an account of the way in which Condillac refuted
the doctrine of the Economists, that in an exchange there is neither
loss or gain on either side, because his work is very little known.
We cannot give a full account of Smith's reasoning, because it would
be too long for such a work as this, and every one can see it in the
work itself. It is sufficient to say that by a course of masterly
reasoning, far superior to that of Condillac, he demonstrated that in
commerce both sides gain; and, therefore, that nations in multi-
plying their commercial relations, multiply their profits, and multiply
their wealth; and that, as a necessary consequence, the labour of
artisans, manufactures and commerce, all enrich a nation, and,
therefore, that those who engage in them are productive labourers.
Perhaps it may seem that the doctrine is so plain that \\ peeHs nn
proof; but that is far from being the case. At the time Smith
proved it, it was a perfect paradox, contrary to the universal opinion
of centuries.
Even if Adam Smith had never done anything else for fiflop^™^
than this, he would have been entitled to immortal g1nrY Smith's
doctrine is now the very corner-stone of Economics, and made a
complete Change in public opinionT anrl in international po)iryT
which has for ever removed a perennial source of war from the
world. Nations learnt that instead of destroying each ofK^rj ?nA
trying_to ruin each other's commerce, it was their interest to promote /
each other's prosperity, and to multiply their commercial relations
with each other. ——————
Free Trade on a Moral and Economical basis.
The Economists established it as one of the fundamental rights of
mankind that they should be allowed to exchange their products and
services freely with one another. Now it is evident that when men
agree to exchange their products and services, the arrangement of
the price, or value, of the reciprocal products and services exchanged
should be left entirely to the mutual agreement of the parties, the
buyer and the seller. Who can tell so well as they what is the real
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j6 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
value of the product, or service, to them ? Now when the price of
the product, or service, is agreed upon and settled between the sole
parties who are interested in it, suppose that some artificial force is
suddenly directed against one of them, beyond what arises from
their natural position, to oblige him to yield up more of his property
to the other than he would do if the arrangement were left perfectly
free — such a force suddenly put at the disposal of either party,
whatever its nature be, whether moral or material, would clearly be
unjust in its very nature, and would be nothing more than a license
enabling one party to rob the other.
It may be asserted in the broadest possible terms that it is
the natural right of every man to employ his industry, and the
talents which Providence has given him, in the manner which
he considers to be most for his own advantage, so long as it is
not to the injury of his neighbour. He has the natural right
to exchange the products of his industry with those of any other
person who will agree to such an exchange, to buy from whom
he will, and to sell to whom he can. A law which seeks to
check the course of this free exchange is inherently wrong, and
because inherently wrong, inherently mischievous. And though
it may be permitted to take something from him for the necessi-
ties of the State, which is the guardian of the interests of all,
a law which deprives one class of the community of a part of
their property, in order to bestow it upon another class, is an
intolerable violation of natural justice. If a person forcibly takes
away a part of his property from another person, without any
equivalent, it is simple robbery. In the same way, if a man
wishes to sell any article, and can by any means force the buyer
to pay a higher price for it than he otherwise would, it is simply
despoiling him of part of his property, and appropriating it to
himself.
Let us put this in a familiar way. Suppose that Richard Stubble
lives in the country and grows corn, and that his friend John Smith
carries on his business in town. Having some corn to sell, Richard
proposes to have a transaction with his friend John. The free
marketable value of the corn is, say, 40s. per quarter ; but suppose
that Richard has about a hundred times more influence over the
Legislature than John has, and he gets them to pass a law by
which he can compel John to pay him 50s. for what he could
buy elsewhere for 40s. In that case he deprives John of 10s.,
representing so much of his industry, for which he gives him
no equivalent, and takes it to himself. In the mediaeval ages
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 77
great lords and barons used to keep armed retainers, whom they
employed to plunder any unfortunate travellers who came within
their power. In the nineteenth century, great lords and gentlemen
passed laws by which they forced traders to surrender to them
a considerable portion of their property against their will. Where
is the moral difference between the cases ? When one man forcibly
and unjustly deprives another man of his property, the precise
method he may adopt for his purpose does not materially affect
the moral aspect of the thing.
It is no argument to say that till comparatively recent times the
protective system was established in this country, that it is still
in force in foreign countries, and that it was supported and adopted
by men of unblemished character and integrity. It is absolutely
necessary that we should not suffer our estimation of the moral
character of men to influence our judgment as to the soundness
of their opinions. There never prevailed a pernicious error in
the world which was not supported by the authority of men of
eminent personal excellence. It is, unfortunately, through the
very excellence of the men who adopted them that most of the
erroneous principles which have done so much mischief in the
world derived their fatal influence. The real question is not
whether the men who hold certain opinions are estimable, but
whether the opinions themselves are right or wrong. The fact is
that questions are examined with far greater care and intelligence
nowadays than ever they were before; and by this more com-
prehensive investigation new considerations and relations are
discovered, which may present them in very different lights than
are apparent at first Abstract right is every day obtaining greater
influence in legislation, and many of the most beneficial reforms,
of the present day have been to abolish and set aside the partial
and unjust laws which encumbered the statute-book. It is not
so very long ago that public opinion in this country tolerated the
slave trade, and men of eminent piety saw no harm in stealing
men from their homes, and transporting them to foreign countries,,
to labour for the benefit of their masters. But public opinion
became convinced of its abomination, and not only put it down,,
but declared it to be a great crime. What was considered to be
legitimate traffic at the beginning of the century, is now declared
by law to be piracy, and Englishmen who engage in it are liable
to be dealt with as pirates. Little more than a hundred years
ago, if a gale came on, it used to be the custom to pitch the
negroes overboard, like cattle, and this was related in a court
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yS On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
of law without eliciting the slightest comment. Now, at bottom,
there is not much difference in the ideas involved in protection
and the slave trade. They both seek to effect the same object
by somewhat different methods. They are both for the purpose
of enabling one set of men to appropriate to themselves the
fruits of their neighbours' industry — the one by the coarse
method of fraud, the other by the somewhat more refined method
of fraudulent taxation.
The protective system is, therefore, nothing more than a method
by which producers endeavour to force consumers to pay a higher
price than they otherwise would do for their commodities. Now
let us consider a different case.
Suppose that the Legislature, being entirely composed of con-
sumers, should pass a law forbidding the farmers to sell their
produce above a certain price, or to export it to foreign countries,
where they might find a better market for it. Or suppose that
laws were made to prevent workmen demanding above a certain
sum as wages, or compelling producers to bring their products
to market, and accept a price for them much below what they
would fetch if there were no such law. This would be a case
on the part of consumers precisely analogous to what protection
is on the part of producers.
This form of injustice did formerly prevail to a certain extent
in this country, but it never acquired a distinctive name in our
language as it did in France. During the height of the French
Revolution, in 1793, when the insecurity of property had scared
away almost all sorts of produce from the market, the French
Convention passed the severest laws to limit the price of com-
modities, forbidding persons to sell their produce above a certain
fixed price, whence they were called the laws of the Maximum,
As might have been foreseen, these laws only aggravated the evil,
and their disastrous effects are set forth with great minuteness
in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth volumes of Alison's History
of Europe (seventh edition), though the author overlooks the fact
that the very same objections apply against the system of pro-
tection, of which he is so strong an advocate.
Each of these systems, then, is erroneous, but in opposite
directions — that of Protection, by which the producer obliges
the consumer to buy from him his produce at a price above its
natural value; that of the Maximum, by which the consumer
obliges the producer to sell to him his produce at a price below
its natural market value. Now every law whatever which interferes
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 79
with the natural course of trade, which attempts to regulate the
wages of labour or the price of commodities, which attempts to
meddle with the free exchange of industry or products between
man and man, must necessarily fall under one of these forms of
error. Every such law sins against natural justice, more or less,
in one direction or the other, either as it assumes the form of
Protection or the Maximum; and it is just as clear as the sun
at noonday that the only true, just, and proper course is to establish
and maintain absolute freedom of exchange.
The fact is, that both of these erroneous systems — Protection
and the Maximum — as we pointed out forty years ago, and which is
now generally recognised, are forms of Socialism. They are both
especially designed for the very purpose of interfering with the
natural value of commodities. Consequently, whichever of the
parties is enabled to compel the other to part with his property
at a different rate than what he would if unconstrained, is able
to appropriate to himself a portion of the other's property. And
this is the very essence of Socialism. Protection is the Socialism
of producers; the Maximum is the Socialism of consumers. And
nothing is more natural than to find that where the one doctrine
is popular with one party, the other doctrine is popular with the
other party. Of this we may see examples in foreign countries,
where Protection is the creed of the State, and Socialism is the
alarmingly-increasing creed of the people.
Now, the idea which was at the root of all this legislation was
that Cost of Production should regulate Value, and that those
who had produced articles had the right to have remunerative
prices secured to them by law. This idea was a very natural
one to occur to producers, and when we think of the condition
of Parliament when this species of legislation was in fashion, it
is not surprising that it prevailed. In the last century, it is true,
there were at various times laws enacted for disturbing the natural
course of commerce ; but the corn laws, which lasted, with various
modifications, until Sir Robert Peel abolished them, were enacted in
181 5. Now, what was the state of Parliament at that time? One
branch was entirely composed, as it still mostly is, of agriculturists ;
the other principally of agriculturists and the nominees of agri-
culturists, as well as great manufacturers, great merchants, great
shipowners, and great producers of all sorts. It was entirely a
Parliament of sellers — a vast, close, and corrupt combination.
The great body of the people, i.e., the consumers, had very little
influence in the House of Commons. The sellers had a complete
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80 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
monopoly of law-making, and their legislation was exactly what
might have been expected. All the producers, in turn, were
permitted to plunder. the public for their own benefit. It was
nothing more than a gigantic conspiracy of all the sellers against
all the buyers. These laws were a striking proof that no single
interest can be entrusted with the power to frame laws for the
whole community in a spirit of justice; but, to ensure that, all
interests must have a voice.
These considerations are, we think, sufficient to place the doctrine
of Free Exchange on an impregnable moral basis, and we have
now to consider the effect of Adam Smith's grand demonstration,
that in commerce both sides gain. The Economists keenly main-
tained the right of free exchange ; but from their doctrine, that
in commerce neither side gains, this was but a barren truth.
Sut Smith's demonstration, that in commerce both sides gain,
"puFjhe matter in a much more striking and practical light. This,
j)f all the services he has done to Economics, may_be_considered
as his chief achievement — one which alone, from its stupendous
consequences and eflects on national policy,~~would entitle him
to immortal glory. "
""The 'essence of Adam Smith's doctrine is that the wider and
more extensive commercial intercourse is among nations, the more
prosperous and wealthy they all become. Every one, in seeking his
own advantage, benefits others as well ; because if a man wants
to acquire" any object he must have to offer in exchange for it
something which other people want. Different countries have
different advantages for producing commodities for the enjoyment
and satisfaction of mankind. It is the^interesFof the whole world
that all commodities" sTiould be produced in those places where they
can be obtamecTbest and cheapest, and exported to those places
where they can only be produced of inferior quality, and ata
greater cost. Thus the whole world will obtain the greatest
amount of enjoyments an? l&tisTactjons^al IheJjgasT labour~and
dostH ~~~
Thus absolute freedom of commerce and exchange throughout
the whole world is the true nature of things. But when hostile
tariffs are interposed they act at once as a barrier, and diminish
the commercial intercourse of nations, to their mutual impoverish-
ment. Protective tariffs are expressly made for the purpose of
forcing commerce out of its natural course and development,
and that alone is sufficient to condemn them. This is so obvious
that we need not dwell on it further.
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.UNIVERSITY]
1^**— •^
Ch. in.] History of Economies^ -ll'on -
It is, however, necessary to correct an assertion which is by
no means uncommon. It is well known that Cobden, in his
wonderful campaigns, many times declared that if England would
lead the way other nations would quickly adopt Free Trade. At
that time there seemed every prospect that this hope would be
realised. After his great victory in England, Cobden made a
triumphal progress throughout Europe. Everywhere he was re-
ceived like a great conqueror. The success of free trade legisla-
tion in England gave an immense stimulus to free trade doctrines
in France, the birthplace and cradle of Economics and free trade.
In 1846 and 1847 numerous Economists, among whom Michel
Chevalier and Frederic Bastiat were the most conspicuous leaders,
got up an association and agitation in France on the model of
the Anti-Corn Law League in England, and excited immense
enthusiasm. The movement had the best prospect of success
when the French Revolution of 1848 broke out, and quickly set
all Europe in a blaze. That of course extinguished all hopes of
Free Trade. When thrones were rocking to their foundations, and
crowns were tumbling in the dust, statesmen could give no attention
to Economics. Inter arma Economics silet. And instead of
Economics, the wildest Socialism got the upper hand. The
Socialists knew instinctively that true Economics was their deadly
enemy, so they abolished all the chairs of Economics in France.
Under the fatal advice of Louis Blanc they established the AtSliers
Nationaux (of which I have given an account in my Dictionary
of Political Economy), where every workman was to be provided
with work out of the resources of the State. But though the State
could pay workmen to produce articles, it could not provide pur-
chasers to buy them, so that, to prevent bankruptcy, the Ateliers
Nationaux had to be suppressed, at the cost of the most terrible
civil war ever raised in any city.
Napoleon III., with the advice and assistance of Rouher, Cheva-
lier, Cobden, and Mallet, negotiated a commercial treaty with
England in i860, which considerably relaxed the protection system
then established. But this treaty was carried by the autocratic
power of the Emperor, and was utterly distasteful to the great
jdbss of the French people, who were now mainly protectionist
and socialist, which are one and the same thing. And, alas !
France, which in the last century was the beacon to spread the
light of free trade throughout the world, is now enveloped in the
deepest darkness of protection and socialism ; nor does there seem
any immediate prospect of her emerging from it.
G
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82 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
Fallacy of Reciprocity and Retaliation.
Now, a considerable number of persons, seeing that other nations
not only have not followed the example of England, but, on the
contrary, have retrogressed, and are now even more protectionist
than they were in 1847, anc* tnat UP to tn*s ^me Cobden's hopes
have been falsified, have maintained that what Cobden only re-
garded as a hopeful prospect was, in his view, the necessary
corollary of England's adoption of free trade; and that as other
nations have plunged deeper and deeper into protection and
socialism, England should do so likewise. They clamour against
what they are pleased to designate as one-sided free trade, and,
under the specious names of reciprocity and fair trade, they are
calling out for England to retaliate by enacting protective tariffs
against those nations which have enacted protective tariffs against
her, and so to do unto them as they do unto her. If this were
carried out, England would have to revert to the darkest days
of protection.
It has been frequently said that if Cobden were alive now, and
saw the falsification of his hopes, he would advocate reciprocity
and fair trade, as they are pleased to term it But those who say so
never studied Cobden's doctrines. Constantly and uniformly he
inculcated that England ought to adopt free trade whether other
nations did so or not, and even if all the world were against her, as
is very much the case at present.
Having a perfect recollection of the great free trade discussions, I
have no hesitation in saying that Cobden would have done nothing
of the sort which the reciprocitarians and fair traders would attribute
to him. His constant maxim was, that the true way to fight hostile
tariffs is by free trade.
No doubt all these hostile tariffs are extremely exasperating.
They inflict incalculable injury, not only upon the wealth and
prosperity of England, but upon the nations themselves, and all
others in the world. But if, as some hotheaded and inconsiderate
persons urge, England were to resort to reciprocity and retaliation,
she would merely double the mischief. If the present hostile
tariffs destroy an incalculable amount of commercial intercourse^
a resort to reciprocity and retaliation would destroy it infinitely
more. As Sir Louis Mallet pithily said, " If one tariff is bad, two
are worse." If foreign nations smite us on one cheek by their hostile
tariffs, if we followed the advice of the reciprocitarians, and retaliated,
we should simply smite ourselves very hard on the other cheek.
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Ch. IIL] History of Economics 83
I will now endeavour to show that it is for the interest of this
country to adopt free trade, irrespective of the policy of foreign
nations, and that both the theories of retaliatory duties and reci-
procity are erroneous.
In order to demonstrate this, let us suppose two cases. First, let
us suppose that England and France have very few duties, or none
at all, on each other's productions, and under these laws a certain
amount of commercial intercourse takes place. Let us now suppose
that, for some reason or another, France takes umbrage at Eng-
land, and, in order to punish her, imposes heavy duties on English
products. Without at present stopping to inquire what are the
effects of this conduct on France herself, it is evident that the
result is to limit the demand for English goods. It manifestly
cripples British industry, and by this means a certain amount of
injury is done to England. England, being irritated, begins to
think of revenge, and just at that moment in comes a protectionist
in a fit of blind, unreasoning passion, and cries out, "We must
retaliate! Put a heavy tax on all French produce." In an evil
hour England listens to protectionist advice, and places heavy
retaliating duties on French produce, by way of punishing France.
Suppose that from these duties ;£i, 000,000 is raised. Who pays
this £1,000,000 of duties ? The protectionist, seeing that this sum
of money is raised from these goods which belong to Frenchmen,
and come from France, by some incomprehensible jumble of ideas
calls this "taxing the foreigner," and thinks that he is making
the Frenchman pay. But let us examine the case carefully. In
the first place, who pays the import duties? It is quite clear
that it is not the Frenchman who pays them, but the British
consumer. The import duties are charged in the price to the
consumer, and, therefore, by placing import duties on goods, it
is ourselves we tax, and not the foreigner. Thus, England being
irritated at French ill-temper, gets in a passion, and immediately
fines herself ^1,000,000.
The price of French produce being thus raised, of course limits
the demand for it, and it injures France so far by crippling their
industry, but not by making them pay the tax upon it. As, there-
fore, by placing retaliatory duties on French produce, we take
less of it, they necessarily take less of ours in return; and this
also still further cripples British industry, throws British workmen
out of employment, causes less demand for British shipping, and,
in addition to all this, raises a large sum by way of taxation on
the British consumer, besides the inconvenience of either making
0 2
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84 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. L
persons forego what they have been accustomed to, or by making
them pay a higher price for it — reducing their means of purchasing
other articles. By the method of retaliatory duties, when the
Frenchman smites us on one cheek, we immediately hit ourselves
an extremely hard slap on the other. The Frenchman, by his
duties, does us an injury, and we, by retaliating, immediately do
ourselves a great deal more ; and, indeed, it would not be difficult
to show that the country which imposes the duty does itself a
great deal more injury than its antagonist. The same arguments,
of course, apply to France.
Now let us take another case. Suppose that France and Eng-
land, being afflicted with protectionist ideas, have mutually imposed
heavy duties, not absolutely prohibitive, on each other's produce.
Suppose that under these duties a certain amount of trade takes
place between them ; then England, being brought to understand
that it is she herself, and not France, who pays the import duties,
resolves to make a general reduction of her import duties without
waiting for France to alter hers. By this means the price of
French produce is lowered to British consumers, a greater demand
for it takes place, and the French producers have more money to
spend. Then they in turn take more goods from England, and
this sets British industry in motion, gives employment to British
workmen and to British shipping. Is it not clear, therefore, that it
is for the advantage of England to lower her duties, whether France
does so or not? By lowering the duties we are taking the burden
off our own backs, and not that of the foreigner, though of course
it benefits him too, as it gives him more employment. If the
foreigner could be induced to do so too, it would still further
increase the mutual benefit. It may be laid down certainly, as
a rule, that the country which raises or lowers its import duties
injures or benefits itself much more than it injures or benefits
its neighbour. And has not all this been found to be true by
experience? And now let us ask who are the true "friends to
British industry " — the protectionists or the free traders ?
The first of these cases shows the mischievous operation of
retaliatory duties, and the second the fallacy of the reciprocity
theory, and they completely demonstrate the free trade axiom,
which is so sore a puzzle to protectionists — The true way to fight
hostile tariffs is by free imports.
Retaliation, then, is not to be thought of. England may justly
fume and fret, but she must keep her temper and possess her
soul in patience. There is no remedy but time and patience.
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 85
When protectionist policy once gets the upper hand, the natural
tendency of its advocates is to strain it till it cracks. When
protectionists do not reap the benefits they expect from protection,
their constant cry is for more, and always more, protection. We see
this in Russia, Germany, France, Italy, and, most conspicuously,
in the United States. In this last-mentioned country they at
last perceived that they had bent the bow too far, and they have
recently somewhat relaxed the strain; but how long they will
continue in this mood no human being can tell. But whatever
other nations may do, England must endure to the end, and steadily
keep the light of free trade burning amid despondency, gloom,
and darkness, in the hope that time, experience, reflection, and
example may bring other nations to a better frame of mind.
We are happy to be able to support these views by a passage
written by one of those illustrious Scots who were an undying
honour to their own native land, and an unspeakable blessing
to those nations they were called to rule — Sir Thomas Munro,
Governor of Madras. In 1825, writing to a friend, he says :
" There is another point on which anxiety is shown where I think
there ought to be none — I mean that of other nations granting
similar remissions on our trade. Why should we trouble ourselves
about this? We ought surely not to be restrained from doing
ourselves good by taking their goods as cheap as we can get them,
because they won't follow our example. If they will not make
our goods cheaper, and take more of them, they will at least
take what they did before ; so that we suffer no less on this, while
we gain on the other side. I think it is better that we should
have no engagements with foreign nations about reciprocal duties,
and that it will be more convenient to leave them to their own
discretion in fixing the rate, whether high or low."
So wrote this sagacious Scot in 1825, by which it will be seen that
he completely anticipated Cobden's arguments, and in other respects
the ideas he put forth then are only now being realised in India.
One example alone is sufficient to prove the truth of this policy.
Even in former times, when all nations were protectionist, there
were always a certain number of free cities, and their wealth and
prosperity, while all nations were weighed down with protection,
completely establish the truth of the doctrine of Sir Thomas
Munro and Cobden. And if free cities were enabled to prosper,
while all the rest of the world was protectionist, does not the same
argument apply to England? If so be, England must continue
to the end as the free port and market of the world.
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86 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
A war of tariffs is only one degree less injurious than a war of
sabres and cannon.
Thus we see how true Economics throws a clear and steady light
on the path of national policy.
On Smith' 8 Definition of Wealth.
Having thus set forth Adam Smith's magnificent services to
Commerce in general, and their effects on international policy,
we must now inquire more particularly into his conception of the
positive science itself. The first book is on what he calls Pro-
duction and Distribution, but in reality it is the Theory of Value,
or of Commerce, in accordance with the meaning given to the
expression by the Economists. And as the word Wealth is the
basis of the whole science, we must investigate what Smith means
by Wealth,
It is somewhat strange that though Smith entitles his work
" An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations"
he nowhere tells us what he means by Wealth. Whately has well
observed that Smith's title supplies only a name for the subject
matter, and not for the science itself.
We must now endeavour to collect what Smith meant by
" Wealth." We must remember that by Wealth the Economists
meant the Material Products of the earth which are brought into
Commerce and exchanged, and those only. They expressly ex-
cluded Labour and Rights from the term Wealth; thus, they
made Labour, Materiality, and Exchangeability as neces-
sary to Wealth, but of these they made Exchangeability as the
real essence of Wealth, and Labour and Materiality only as
the accessories or accidents of Wealth, because they excluded
the material products of the earth which were not brought into
commerce and exchanged from the term Wealth.
Smith does not anywhere expressly define Wealth, but at the
end of the Introduction he speaks of "the real Wealth of the
country — the annual produce of the Land and Labour of the society " ;
and from the number of times he repeats this phrase, we may
assume that to be very much his idea of it, especially as it was
an expression in common use by the Economists of other
countries.
But it is to be observed that Smith has entirely omitted Ex-
changeability from his description of Wealth in this place.
Now, upon examining this expression, it is very evident that
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 87
it is ambiguous. It is not clear whether it means the annual
produce of land alone, and the annual produce of labour alone,
or the annual produce of land and labour combined. It is probable
that he meant the latter.
Whichever way the expression is interpreted, it is manifest that it
is far too wide, because if it be laid down absolutely that "the
annual produce of land and labour? either separately or combined,
is Wealth, then every useless product of the earth is Wealth as
well as the most useful — the tares as well as the wheat. If a diver
fetches a pearl oyster from the deep sea, the shell is as much
the " produce of land and labour " as the pearl itself. So if a
nugget of gold or a diamond is obtained from a mine, the rubbish
it is found in, and brought up with, is as much the "produce of
land and labour " as the gold or the diamond; and innumerable other
instances of this sort might be cited.
So also every useless work done would be Wealth. Thus, if
a number of labourers were to raise a mound in Salisbury plain,
or build a palace in the middle of the Sahara, that would be
Wealth. The simplest example of the "produce of land and
labour" is children making dirt pies; so that if this definition
of Smith's is to be accepted, the way to augment the Wealth of
the country would be to set all the dirty children in it to make
mud pies !
Moreover, this definition is far too narrow. The land itself
on which a city is built is Wealth. The owners of it obtain a
great revenue by simply allowing other people to build houses
on it. The land on which London is built is worth thousands
of millions of money, and the land itself is certainly not the
"annual produce of land and labour," either separately or
combined.
Moreover, cattle and flocks and herds are of great value, and
are Wealth; and how are flocks and herds and cattle the "annual
produce of land and labour"?
There are besides many species of timber trees which are of
great value as they stand on the ground, before any person has
touched them. How are they the "annual produce of land and
labour"? — unless, indeed, we agree with M'Culloch, that the growth
of a tree is labour !
So, many other examples might be cited.
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88 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
Smith classes Human Abilities, or Labour, as Wealth.
Moreover, under the title of " Fixed Capital," Smith enumerates
"the acquired and useful abilities of all the inhabitants or
members of the society. The acquisition of such talents by the
maintenance of the acquirer during his education, study, or
apprenticeship, always costs a real expense, which is a Capital
fixed and realised as it were in his person. These Talents as
they make a part of his Fortune, so do they likewise of that of
the society to which he belongs."
So also he says: — "The Property which every man has in his
own Labour, as it is the original foundation of all other property,
so it is the most sacred and inevitable. The Patrimony of the poor
man lies in the strength and dexterity of his hands."
These passages entirely coincide with the argument of the
Eryxiasy already cited, and given in the article Wealth in the
following book. Thus it is seen that Smith expressly classes
Human Abilities, or Labour, as Wealth. Now Human Abilities
are certainly not the "produce of land," nor are they the "produce
of land and labour" combined. It may be said that acquired
abilities are the produce of Labour, but certainly natural abilities
are not the produce of Labour, nor are abilities natural or acquired,
the " annual produce of land and labour."
Thus Smith has already broken away from the doctrine of the
Economists that Wealth is to be restricted to the material products
of the earth, because they especially excluded Labour from the title
of Wealth. And now we see the inconvenience of the nomencla-
ture of the Economists. Labour is an exchangeable commodity.
It may be bought and sold, it has value, and its value may be
measured in money. But how are we to speak of the " Production,
Distribution, and Consumption " of Labour ?
Thus Smith, in these and many other passages, expressly acknow-
ledges Labour, or the second order of Economic Quantities, to be
Wealth; and he has a chapter discussing Wages as the Price of
Labour.
Smith admits Right8 to be Wealth.
Hence the definition of the Science of Economics as the " Pro-
duction, Distribution, and Consumption of Wealth" has received a
very awkward wrench by admitting Labour into it as Wealth. But
more remains behind. For under the term Circulating Capital,
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 89
Smith expressly includes Bank Notes, Bills of Exchange, and other
securities, which are merely Rights of Action recorded on paper.
But these Rights of Action are Credit: hence Smith expressly
includes Credit under Capital.
He says — "A particular banker lends among his customers his
own Promissory Notes to the extent, we shall suppose, of a hundred
thousand pounds. As these Notes serve all the purposes of money,
his debtors pay him the same interest as if he had lent them so
much money. This is the source of his gain. Though he has in
general in circulation, therefore, notes to the extent of a hundred
thousand pounds, twenty thousand pounds in gold and silver may
frequently be a sufficient provision for answering occasional
demands. By this operation, therefore, twenty thousand pounds
in gold and silver perform all the functions which a hundred
thousand would otherwise have performed. The same exchanges
may be made, the same quantity of consumable goods may be
circulated and distributed to their proper consumers by means of
his promissory notes to the value of a hundred thousand pounds, as
by an equal value of gold and silver money."
Again, — " Let us suppose, for example, that the whole circulating
money of some particular country amounted at a particular time to
one million sterling, that sum being then sufficient for circulating
the whole annual produce of their land and labour. Let us suppose,
too, that some time thereafter different banks and bankers issued
promissory notes payable to bearer to the extent of one million,
reserving in their different coffers two hundred thousand pounds
for answering occasional demands. There would remain, therefore,
in circulation eight hundred thousand in gold and silver, and a
million of bank notes, or eighteen hundred thousand pounds of
paper and money together."
Again, — "A paper money, consisting in bank notes issued by
people of undoubted credit, payable on demand, without any
condition, and, in fact, always readily paid as soon as presented,
is, in every respect, equal in value to gold and silver money, since
gold and silver money can at any time be had for it. Whatever is
either bought or sold for such paper must necessarily be bought and
sold as cheap as it could have been for gold and silver."
These extracts are quite sufficient to prove the point we are
enforcing, that Smith admits one class of Rights to be Circulating
Capital, or Wealth. He puts a million of notes on exactly the same
footing as an equal amount of gold and silver. He admits that
bankers, by issuing a million of notes, augment the mass of
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go On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. i.
exchangeable property to that amount Now what are these Bank
Notes ? They are simply so many circulating Rights of Action,
Credits, or Debts. They are the species of Property termed
Credit, and thus we see that Smith classes Credit under the term
Capital.
This class of Rights, however, is only one of a gigantic mass of
various kinds of Rights, which, since Smith's time, have increased
in a vastly greater ratio than material property. At the present
time the property of this nature of different kinds amounts to scores
of thousands of millions of money. It is termed Incorporeal
Property, or Incorporeal Wealth.
Now these Rights of Action, Credits, or Debts, as well as the
gigantic mass of other kinds of Rights which are bought and sold,
are certainly not the " annual produce of land and labour."
Hence we see that Smith classes both Labour and Rights under
the title of Wealth, which the Economists expressly excluded from
that term ; and thus he completely overthrew the doctrine of the
Economists and others, that the earth is the only source of Wealth.
Thus we see that Smith's definition of Wealth as the "annual
produce of land and labour" — assuming that we have interpreted
him correctly — entirely fails. It is at once far too wide and far too
narrow. It includes a mass of things which can by no means be
called Wealth, and it excludes by far the greater portion of what
Smith himself classes as Wealth.
Such a definition of Wealth, too, is also open to another manifest
objection, which is patent from his own work. For if it be laid
down absolutely that the "annual produce of land and labour" is
Wealth, it clearly follows that if anything be produced by "land
and labour," it must be Wealth in all times and in all places : that
what is once wealth must always be wealth. But universal experi-
ence shews that such a doctrine is utterly erroneous : and it was one
of the points expressly enforced by Socrates in the Eryxias that
anything is Wealth only where it is wanted and Demanded, that is
when and where it is yjnpipov.
And after laboriously inculcating through several hundred pages
that Land and Labour are the essentials of Wealth, Smith admits
this. He says — "a guinea (which may be admitted to be the
produce of land and labour) may be considered as a Bill {i.e. a
Right) for a certain quantity of necessaries and conveniences upon
all the tradesmen in the neighbourhood. The revenue of the
person to whom it is paid does not so properly consist in the piece
of gold as in what he can get for it, or in what he can exchange it
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 91
for. If it could be exchanged for nothing it would, like a Bill upon a
bankrupt, be of no more value than the most useless piece of paper?
Thus, after all, Smith admits that Exchangeability is the real
essence of Value and Wealth.
The incongruity of Smith's conception of the very word, which is
the basis of the whole Science, is thus apparent. For several
hundred pages he contends that the "annual produce of land and
labour" is absolute Wealth, and then at last he says that unless it is
Exchangeable it is not Wealth at all.
So far, however, he makes Labour and Materiality as necessary to
Wealth, and in this he is still under the bondage of the Economists ;
but afterwards he classes human abilities as Wealth, in which there
is certainly no Materiality, nor does it seem accurate to class Labour
itself as the produce of Labour ; and after that again he classes
Rights of action, credit, and of course other Rights as Wealth, in
which there is neither Labour nor Materiality.
It is manifest that these two fundamental concepts of Wealth do
not coincide : for there are many things which are the produce of
Land and Labour, which are not exchangeable: or which are
exchangeable only in some places and not in others, and at some
times and not at others: and there are stupendous masses of
Exchangeable Property — nay, in this great commercial country
enormously the greater portion — which are in no way whatever the
''produce of land and labour."
The utter incongruity of ideas in the beginning of Smith's work ¥
with these in the later half has often been observed. Ricardo has
adopted the former half of the work, and Whately the latter half.
Ricardo adopts Labour as the essence of Value and Wealth,
and Whately adopts Exchangeability. The latter part of Smith's
work is utterly incongruous with the first. In accordance with the
unanimous doctrine of antiquity we adopt Exchangeability as
the sole essence and principle of Wealth, and it follows that
there are three orders of Economical, or Exchangeable, Quanti-
ties as the ancients shewed, and as Smith has admitted.
This is the second service Smith has done to Economics. He
broke through the narrow dogma of the Economists that it was to be
restricted to the Exchanger or Commerce of the material products
of the earth only, and enlarged it so as to embrace all Exchangeable
Quantities and all Exchanges.
Smith also overthrew the dogma of the Economists that agri-
cultural is the only productive labour ; he shewed that the labour of
artisans, manufacturers, and commerce are all productive, and enrich
a nation.
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92 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
Many persons might find a difficulty in understanding the scope
and the purpose of Smith's first two books, but he himself says that
his object is to investigate the principles which regulate the exchange-
able value of commodities. Thus, it is seen that the subject-matter
of the first two books of the Wealth of Nations is a treatise on com-
merce, or the Theory of Value, and his Editor, McCulloch, says in a
note, " this science might be called the Science of Values."
Such are the main outlines of Smith's services to Economics.
Confusion of Smith on Value,
But, unfortunately, great as are Smith's services to Economics,
it may be questioned whether the mischief he has done to the
science does not, at least, counterbalance them.
We have now to direct the student's attention to the irretrievable
confusion he has caused to the science by his self-contradictions
on Value in Book I. chap. v. Of this chapter, Horner says l : " We
have been under the necessity of suspending our progress in the
perusal of the Wealth of Nations, on account of the insurmountable
difficulties, obscurity, and embarrassment, in which the reasonings of
the fifth chapter are involved .... the discovery that I did not
understand Smith, speedily led me to doubt whether Smith under-
stood himself."
From the earliest antiquity every writer has seen that the Value of
a thing is something else external to itself, for which it can be
exchanged.
So in Book I. chap, v., Smith begins by saying that the Value of
any commodity is equal to the Quantity of Labour which it enables
him to command or purchase. Hence, if / denotes labour,
A = /, 2/, 3/, 4/ . . .
He then says in the next paragraph that is the same thing as say-
ing that it is equal to the Produce of labour it enables him to
purchase : or, denoting produce by /, we have
A = /, 2/, 3/>, 4/> . . .
And in the next paragraph he says that the Value of anything is
more frequently estimated in Money than either in labour or com-
modities : or, denoting Money by m,
A = nt9 2m, $m> 4m . . .
1 Memoirs and Correspondence of Horner, vol. i. p. 163.
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 93
Now, though it has been pointed out that these modes of
estimating the Value of a quantity are by no means identical,
we observe that in this passage Smith defines the Value of a thing
to be something external to itself. The Value of a thing is some
other thing for which it can be exchanged. Hence, it is manifest
that the Value of A must vary directly as /, /, or m. The greater the
Quantity of /, p> or m that can be got for A, the more valuable is A:
the less of /, /, or m that can be got for A, the less valuable is A.
It is also perfectly clear that if any change whatever takes place in the
exchangeable relations between A and these Quantities, the Value of
A has changed.
Hence Smith admits that Value, like distance, requires two
objects : if any change takes place in the position of either of these,
the distance between them has changed : no matter in which the
change has taken place. So if the exchangeable relation between
two Quantities changes, their value has changed, no matter in which
the change takes place.
Hence it is clear that there can be no such thing as Invariable
Value. Nothing whatever can by any possibility have an Invariable
Value unless the relations of all other things are fixed also.
Hence we can at once see that by the very nature of things
there can be no such thing as an invariable Standard of Value by
which to measure the variations in value of other things, because,
by the very nature of things, the very condition of anything being
invariable in value is that nothing else shall vary in value: and
consequently the very condition of there being an invariable standard
is that there shall be no variations to measure.
Nevertheless, a very large body of Economists have set out upon
this wild-goose chase — this search after an Invariable Standard —
which it is utterly contrary to the nature of things should exist at all.
Directly after the passages we have referred to, Smith commences
the search for that single thing which is to be the Invariable Standard
of Value.
He says that gold and silver will not do because they vary in
their value — sometimes they can purchase more and sometimes less
labour and other commodities. Then he says : " But as a measure
of quantity such as the natural foot, fathom, or handful, which is
constantly varying its own quantity, can never be an accurate
measure of the quantity of other things, so a commodity which is
itself continually varying in its own value can never be an accurate
measure of the value of other commodities. Equal Quantities of
Labour \ at all times and places, may be said to be of equal value to the
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94 On the Nature and History of Economics [bk. I.
labourer. In his ordinary state of health, strength, and spirits, in
the ordinary degree of his skill and dexterity, he must always lay
down the same portion of his ease, his liberty, his happiness. The
price which he pays must always be the same, whatever the quantity
of goods which he receives in return for it [which, by Smith's own
definition, is the Value of his labour]. Of these, indeed, it may
sometimes purchase a greater and sometimes a smaller quantity,
but it is their Value which varies, not thai of the labour which
purchases them. At all times and places that is dear which is
difficult to come at, or which costs much labour to acquire; and
that cheap which is to be had easily, or with very little labour.
Labour alone, therefore, never varying in its own value, is alone the
ultimate and real standard by which the value of all commodities can
at all times be estimated and compared. It is their real price : money
is their nominal price only.
" But though equal Quantities of Labour are always of equal value
to the labourer (! !), yet to the person who employs him they appear
sometimes to be of greater and sometimes of smaller value. . . .
"Labour, therefore, it appears evidently, is the only universal, as well
as the only accurate, measure of value, or the only standard by which
we can compare the value of different commodities at all times and places."
The utter confusion of ideas in these passages is manifest. A
foot or a fathom is an absolute quantity, and of course may increase
or decrease by itself: but Value, by Smith's own definition, is a
Ratio : and therefore we might just as well say that because a foot,
which is varying in its own length, cannot be an accurate measure
of the length of other things ; therefore a quantity which is always
varying its own Ratio cannot be an accurate measure of the Ratio
of other things. The utter confusion of ideas as to the whole
nature of the thing is manifest. We may measure a tree with a
yard, because they are each of them single quantities: but it is
impossible that a Single Quantity can measure a Ratio. It is
manifestly impossible to say
a : b : : x.
It is manifestly absurd to say that 4 is to 5 as 8, without saying
as 8 is to what : just as it is absurd to say that a horse gallops at the
rate of 20 miles, without saying in what time.
Smith says that " Equal quantities of labour are always of equal
value to the labourer."
Now, by his own definition, the Value of a thing is what can be
got in exchange for it ; consequently, if " equal quantities are always
of equal value to the labourer," a man's labour must be of the same
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Ch. ht] History of Economics 95
value to him whether he gets ;£ioo for it, or £50, or ;£io, or
nothing at all !
The contradiction of ideas in this chapter of Smith's is palpable.
He first defines the value of A to be the quantity of things it will
purchase, and therefore, of course, varying directly as that quantity :
and then he suddenly changes the conception of value to be the
quantity of labour in obtaining A : and says that the Value of A
is invariable so long as it is produced by the same quantity of
labour ! and that its Value is the same whatever quantity of other
things it will purchase !
The word Value has been so misused by Economical writers, that
it will be well to illustrate it by the use of another word of similar
import whose meaning has not been so misused.
Value, like Distance, requires two objects, and we may present
Smith's ideas in this form.
" As a measure of quantity, such as a foot, which is always varying
its own length, can never be an accurate measure of the length of
other things, so an object which is always varying its own distance
can never be an accurate measure of the distance of other objects.
But the Sun is always at the same distance. And though the earth
is sometimes nearer the sun, and sometimes further off from it, the
sun is always at the same distance. And though the earth is at
different distances from the sun, it is the distance of the earth which
has varied, and not that of the sun ; and the sun alone, never vary-
ing its own distance, is the ultimate and real standard by which the
distances of all things can at all times and places be estimated and
compared."
Such is a fair translation of Smith's ideas, merely substituting
Distance for Value. No wonder that Francis Horner says : " We
have been under the necessity of suspending our progress in the
perusal of the Wealth of Nations on account of the insurmountable
difficulties, obscurity, and embarrassment in which the reasonings
of the fifth chapter are involved."
But after saying that a thing produced by the same quantity of
labour is always of the same value, no matter what it may exchange
for : he says, speaking of Money in a subsequent passage, if it
could be exchanged for nothing, it would be of no more value than
the most useless piece of paper !
So, after all, Smith came back to Exchangeability as the test of
value, and this confusion runs through the whole of Smith. One
half the work is based upon Labour as the foundation of value, and
the other half upon Exchangeability.
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g6 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
Having thus shown the confusion and contradictions of Smith
on the two fundamental concepts of Economics, Wealth and
Value, we have now to consider his notions on the Law of Value,
or the Law which governs the exchangeable relations of Economic
Quantities.
On this point, Smith never had the slightest idea that there
can only be one General Law of Value, or General Equation of
Economics; on the contrary, his work is full of a multiplicity of
Theories of Value. He catches at a new Theory of Value for every
class of cases he discusses. Consequently, his Theories of Value are
a mass of contradictions, and, of course, he must sometimes be right.
But his confusion and contradiction on the terms, Wealth and Value,
and the Law of Value, which are the foundations of the whole
science, render the work utterly useless as a general treatise on
the science, fit to be placed in the hands of students. It was the
necessity of determining general principles of Value which was one
of the causes of Ricardo's work.
Stated in a broad, general way, Smith's chief merits are —
i. He shewed, by a course of masterly reasoning, which no
i one else approached, that in an exchange, both sides gain, which
lone or two Economists had casually observed before him, in
contradiction to the doctrines that had prevailed before the Eco-
nomists, that what one side gains the other loses; and the doc-
trine of the Economists, that in an exchange, neither side gains
nor loses.
This is one of Smith's titles to immortal glory; for it at once
removed from the science a doctrine which had been the cause
of innumerable commercial wars, and shewed how utterly the
Economists had under-estimated the advantages of commerce. It
created a complete reversal of the policy of nations, because it
shewed that nations were not interested in the destruction of their
neighbours, but in their prosperity.
2. He burst the bonds of the narrow dogmatism of the Econ-
omists, that nothing but the material products of the earth are
Wealth. In conformity with the doctrine which the author of the
Eryxias had taught 2100 years before him, he recognised that
Labour is Wealth, that it is a marketable commodity which may
be bought and sold, and whose value may be measured in money.
He has a long investigation of the Laws which govern Wages, or
the price of Labour ; thereby making Labour a most important
department of Economics, which no one before him had done,
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 97
and which at the present day excites more discussion than any/
other department of Economics. '
3. He demonstrates that the labour of merchants, traders, and
artisans is productive, and enriches a nation; contrary to the
doctrines of the Economists, who held that agricultural labour
alone is productive.
4. He included Bank Notes, Bills of Exchange, &c, under the,
title of Circulating Capital, thus admitting that Credit is Capital.'
Now Bank Notes, Bills of Exchange, &c, are one class of Rights n
they are Rights of Action, Credits, or Debts. He thus enlarged
Economics to include all the three orders of Exchangeable, oil
Economic Quantities, as the ancients had done. *
He has besides a multitude of sagacious observations, which are
too numerous to be specified in a general outline of the science,
such as the present.
In a broad and general way, his defects are —
1. The title of the work conveys no intelligible idea of its scope
and purpose. It is only by a critical investigation that it is seen
that it is the Theory of Value, as Whately has pointed out.
2. It has no clear and distinct settlement of Definitions, by which
only a science can be constructed, and by which propositions can
be affirmed or denied. His definitions of Wealth and Value, to
name only the two fundamental terms of the science, are quite
contradictory and irreconcileable, and the doctrines founded on
them are a mass of confusion and contradictions.
3. He never had any idea that there can be only a single
General Law of Value governing all the phenomena of commerce
or exchanges. He has a multitude of Theories of Value, which is
contrary to the fundamental principles of Natural Philosophy.
4. That though he extended the term, Productive Labour, \o
include the labour of merchants, traders, and artisans, he restricted
the term to labour which realises itself in some material product
which endures after the labour is ended. Whereas Productive
labour, as was seen by the Economists, means Labour which
produces a Profit Thus, Productive Labour means Profitable
Labour, and all Labour which produces a profit is productive, no
matter whether it is embodied in a material product or not. Thus
all labourers, who earn an income, and make a profit by their
labour, no matter of what kind it may be, are productive; all
labourers who produce anything whatever which is wanted,
demanded, and paid for, are productive labourers.
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98 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I
Sir Walter Scott enters a strong protest against Smith's doctrine,
that Authors are not productive labourers, as well he, and innumer-
able other authors, might.
So Advocates, Physicians, Actors, Opera Singers and Dancers,
Professors, Managers of commercial institutions, and multitudes of
others, whose labours do not realise themselves in any material
products, are all productive labourers, because their labours are
wanted, demanded, and paid for, and thus produce them a profit.
5. Locke, as far as we are aware, originated the unhappy doctrine
that Labour is the cause of all Value. Smith unfortunately com-
mences his work by inculcating the doctrine that the wealth of a
^country is the annual produce of its " land and labour," and repeats
this innumerable times through hundreds of pages. The doctrine
that all Wealth and Value is the produce of Labour, and that
working men are the creators of all Wealth, has been the canker
and the ruin of English Economics, and, as the Socialists them-
selves admit, is the foundation of that Socialism which has now
assumed such a menacing aspect in so many countries. The
Socialists have failed to observe that Smith has quite contradicted
himself in the latter part of his work, where he admits that
& Exchangeability is the real essence and principle of Wealth, in
accordance with the unanimous doctrine of the ancients.
6. The confusion and contradiction of Smith's ideas on all the
fundamental concepts of Economics has exercised a fatal influence on
the whole of his work ; it is nothing but a chaos of contradictions.
One of these only has attracted much attention. In one part he
affirms that the payment of rent enters into price, and thus causes
an increase in the price of corn. In another part, he affirms that
the payment of rent is the effect of price, and, therefore, does not
raise the price. Hume was on his death-bed when the Wealth of
Nations reached him, and he at once wrote to Smith to tell him
that the payment of rent does not raise the price of corn. The
same doctrine also was proved by Anderson, a practical farmer, who
was an extensive writer on agricultural subjects, but Smith never
made any alteration in his work. It was this glaring self-contradic-
tion, among countless others, which was another of the causes which
stimulated Ricardo to write his Principles of Political Economy.
7. Smith admitted that one class of Rights, Rights of Action,
Credits, or Debts, are Circulating Capital, but he took no notice of
other classes of Rights, which in recent times have increased at a
much greater ratio than material property, and at the present day
amount to scores of thousands of millions of valuable property.
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 99
8. He never made any attempt to give an exposition of the
principles and mechanism of commerce. Thus, while he admits
that Bank-notes, Bills of Exchange, &c, are Circulating Capital,
he never had the slightest idea of the great juridical principles
and organisation of the system of Mercantile Credit, the colossal
business of Banking, and the Theory of the Foreign Exchanges.
Now, taking the very title of his own work as the Nature and
Causes of the Wealth of Nations^ it is impossible to develope this
without an exposition of the principles and mechanism of Credit,
by which all Commerce and Trade is carried on; and which,
as Daniel Webster has said, has done more to enrich nations a
thousand times than all the mines of all the world.
On two points Smith's sagacity has failed him, and he maintained
doctrines which were directly contrary to his own general principles,
and which subsequent experience has shown that he was in error.
He strongly supported the Navigation Laws, which he admitted X-
were contrary to the principles of Free Trade. But subsequent
experience showed that they had become an intolerable nuisance,
and were totally repealed in 1849, which was immediately followed
by an enormous expansion of British commerce.
He also strongly supported the Usury Laws. In this he was far
behind his friends, the Economists Turgot, Quesnay, and others,
who pointed out their utter futility, and advocated their total repeal.
Smith's doctrines were refuted by Bentham, in his splendid Defence
of Usury, It has been said that this tract convinced Smith of his
error ; but yet he made no change in his work. The Usury Laws
were totally condemned by a Committee of the House of Commons
in 18 1 9, and have now been entirely repealed in this country.
The most important Economical problems of the present day —
Commercial Crises and Monetary Panics — had not arisen in Smith's
day, which indeed was not his fault. But to investigate these, and
bring them under scientific control, requires a thorough inquiry to
the nature of Economics and its fundamental concepts, and then
it will be seen that they can only be treated scientifically by adopting
the conception of Economics as the Science of Exchanges or of
Commerce.
Smith's work, then, can in no respect be considered as a work y
of Science \ it is, rather, a vast mass of raw material, to be subjected
to strict Economical inquiry.
It is not necessary to take notice of the three latter books of the
Wealth of Nations in this place, because we are only concerned
here with Smith's notion of the nature and objects of Economics.
h 2
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loo On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
We have now to mention two writers — (i) Ricardo, who adopted
the doctrine of the commencement of Smith's work that Labour is
the cause of Value, and (2) Whately, who adopted the doctrine
of the latter part of it, that Exchangeability is the sole essence and
principle of Wealth and Value.
RICARDO.
Ricardo, a very wealthy and highly-esteemed member of the
Stock Exchange, first attained distinction as a writer in 1809. In
that year the market, or paper, price of gold rose greatly above the
Mint Price, and the Foreign Exchanges fell greatly. Ricardo
published a pamphlet, entitled, The High Price of Bullion a proof
of the Depreciation of Bank Holes, in which he revived the doctrine
published by Lord King in 1804. Although this work commenced
with several highly-erroneous statements, it most decisively proved
its thesis. This gave rise to the appointment of the celebrated
Bullion Committee in 18 10, and its Report entirely adopted
Ricardo's doctrine. But it aroused the warmest opposition from
the Bank of England and the merchants, because it would have
curtailed the nefarious profits of the Bank from issuing torrents of
depreciated paper, and also the accommodation to the merchants.
Under their influence, the House of Commons rejected the Report,
and resolved that in public estimation a £1 note and is. were
equal to a £1 note and 7s. ; or, that 21 was equal to 27. This was
followed by a stupendous controversy which has now sunk into
oblivion. Nevertheless, the Report gradually won the assent of the
mercantile public, and the mercantile evidence before the Bullion
Committees of 18 19 was just as strong in its favour as it had been
against it in 18 10. Ricardo greatly distinguished himself by his
masterly evidence before these Committees, and his doctrine is now
universally accepted by all sane men. The Bullion Report is one
of the great landmarks in Economics.
Ricardo then published some minor pamphlets, which are now
totally forgotten, but in 181 7, encouraged by the reputation he had
acquired, he adventured upon a much more extensive work, The
Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, for which, un-
fortunately, he was totally inadequate.
Ricardo knew no classics, which are indispensable to the study
of Economics, because almost all the fundamental concepts of
Economics are to be found in Aristotle, the Eryxias, Demosthenes,
and the Pandects of Justinian. He knew nothing of Mercantile
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Ch/IIL] History of Economics ioi
Law, nothing of the great juridical principles and mechanism of the
great system of Credit, nothing of the organisation of Banking.
He had surprising quickness at figures and calculation, somewhat
of the genius of the calculating boy, like Mr. Goschen. About
twenty-five, he essayed mathematics, but he had no taste for it,
and entirely abandoned it when he began to write on Economics,
which was a fatal error, as he should just then have most deeply
studied mathematics and natural philosophy, because Economics,
according to his own view, being the Theory of Value, is a pure
science of Variable Quantities, and its laws must be brought, as
Bacon pointed out long ago, into strict harmony with the Laws of
other sciences of Variable Quantities.
The incongruity of ideas on Wealth and Value in the Wealth of
Nations, gave rise to two distinct classes of Economists, who adopt
different halves of the work.
Ricardo gives no definition of what he means by the word
Wealth, which is the basis of the whole Science. He plunges at
once into Value.
In Chap. I., Sect. I., he defines the Value of a commodity as
" the quantity of any other commodity for which it will exchange"
He then says, "Adam Smith, who so accurately defined the
original source of exchangeable value, and who was bound in
consistency to maintain that all things became more or less valuable
in proportion as more or less labour was bestowed on their produc-
tion, has himself another standard measure of value, and speaks of
things being more or less valuable in proportion as they will ex-
change for more or less of this standard measure. Sometimes he
speaks of corn, at other times of labour as a standard measure, not
the quantity of labour bestowed upon the production of any object,
but the quantity it can command in the market ; as if these were
two equivalent expressions, and as if because a man's labour had
become doubly efficient, and he could therefore produce. twice the
quantity of a commodity, he would necessarily receive twice the
former quantity in exchange for it."
Ricardo, therefore, deliberately rejects Exchangeability, and adopts
Labour as the cause and measure of Value.
Now, the principles enforced by Bacon and common sense shew
that if one wants to construct a general Theory it is necessary to
collect all the facts of the case — because, if even one be omitted,
the little JDavid, as Bacon calls it — that single fact may upset a
theory founded on all the others.
To construct, then, a Theory of Value it is necessary to begin by
\
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102 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
collecting all instances of Value. Now, as is shown under Value,
Value is found in (i) Material Commodities, (2) Personal Qualities,
<3) Abstract Rights.
But Ricardo begins by confining his attention only to material
commodities — and not even all material commodities, but only those
which are the product of human labour. That is, he proceeds to
construct a General Theory upon only one particular department of
Economics. Now, it is evident that such a proceeding is directly
contrary to the fundamental principles of Natural Philosophy, and
its results may easily be foreseen.
Ricardo, then, having restricted his inquiry to material com-
modities the result of Labour, maintains that Labour is the cause of
Value, and Quantity of Labour is the measure of Value.
Ricardo, then, having begun by defining the Value of a com-
modity as " the quantity of any other commodity for which it will
exchange," lands himself in the conclusion that the "Quantity of
Labour " embodied in producing a commodity is its Value !
He then says that " the quantity of labour bestowed on a com-
modity is, under many circumstances, an invariable standard,
indicating correctly the variations of other things."
Ricardo then starts on the search of the Invariable Standard of
Value, which should itself be subject to none of the fluctuations to
which other commodities are exposed. He says that it is impossible
to be possessed of such a measure, because there is no commodity
which is not subject to require more or less labour for its production.
Afterwards he says, "If equal quantities of labour, with equal
quantities of fixed capital, could at all times obtain from that mine
which paid no rent, equal quantities of gold, gold would be as
nearly an invariable measure of value as we could in the nature of
things possess. The quantity would indeed enlarge with the Demand,
but its value would be invariable, and it would be eminently well
calculated to measure the varying value of all other things"
In a subsequent part of his work he says, "The labour of a
million of men in manufactures will always produce the same value.
.... That commodity is alone invariable which at all times re-
quires the same sacrifice of toil and labour to produce it."
That is, Ricardo says, that the value of manufactures is always
the same whether they sell for ;£ioo, for ;£io, for ^5, or for
nothing !
We doubt whether the manufacturers of Manchester would
acquiesce in the doctrine that their manufactures are of just the
same value whether they sell for large sums, or cannot be sold at all.
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 103
And after beginning by defining and several times repeating that
the value of a thing is the other things it will exchange for, he ends
by saying, " I cannot agree with M. Say in estimating the value of a
commodity by the abundance of other commodities for which it
will exchange."
Ricardo, therefore, begins by defining the value of a thing to
be something external to it ; and then he ends by describing it to
mean the quantity of labour, or cost of production, bestowed on
obtaining it.
Ricardo's doctrine that Labour is the cause of all Value is a
curious example of how able men can be blind to what is going on
under their own eyes. Ricardo was a very wealthy man : and of
what did the greater part of his wealth consist ? Evidently of stocks
and shares, which were mere abstract Rights to future payment
And can Labour be the cause of the Value of Rights to future
payment ?
The very first day that Bentham read the book he wrote to
Ricardo to tell him that it was all founded on a confusion between
Cost and Value.
We will now show the extraordinary conclusion into which
Ricardo was logically led by his repeated declaration, that Labour
is the cause of all Value.
He says : " In contradiction to the opinion of Adam Smith,
M. Say, in the fourth chapter, speaks of the value which is given
to commodities by natural agents, such as the air, the sun, the
pressure of the atmosphere, which are sometimes substituted for
the labour of man, and sometimes concur with him in producing.
But these natural agents, though they add greatly to Value in use,
never add exchangeable value to a commodity . . . and they are
serviceable to us by increasing the abundance of productions, by
making men richer, by adding to value in use ; but as they perform
their work gratuitously, as nothing is paid for the use of the air,
of heat, and of water they afford to us, add nothing to Value in
Exchange 1 "
Now when logical reasoning from certain premisses leads to
results which are notoriously false, and contrary to experience and
fact, it is perfectly certain that these premisses must be erroneous.
Nothing more is required to show the utter fallacy of the doctrine
that human labour is the cause of all value than to consider the
consequences it naturally leads to.
If labour be, as Ricardo and other writers maintain, the cause
of all value; if a man plants an acorn, the full-grown oak tree
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104 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
should be of no more value than the acorn, because human labour
stops there ; the rest is the agency of Nature.
According to this doctrine, cattle and fowls ought to have no
value at all, because no human labour ever made an animal nor
ever laid an egg.
According to Ricardo's doctrine, the value of the harvest
reaped should be no greater than the cost of the seed corn, the
ploughing and labouring the ground, and the manure placed in
the soil, because human labour stops there ; the rest is the agency
of nature.
According to Ricardo, the fertilizing showers and the warmth
of the sun add nothing to the value of the crops ; therefore, by
the same doctrine, the want of a due amount of rain, or an
absolute drought, or excessive deluges of rain, and the total
absence of sunshine, would cause no diminution in the value of
the crops !
We suspect that practical farmers Would scarcely agree with
this doctrine, and think that it must be a queer science which
teaches it.
It is a common observation that a day of fine sunshine in
summer in certain stages. of the crops is worth a million of money
to the country.
The doctrine of Smith and Ricardo, that the Value of a com-
modity is the Quantity of Labour embodied in it, gave rise to
the mischievous and absurd expressions, Intrinsic Value and a
Standard of Value, which, considering that Value is a ratio, are
impossible.
Having thus shown Ricardo's self-contradiction and confusion on
the definition and nature of Value, we have now to examine his
doctrine on the Laws of Value.
As shown above, he excludes Labour and Rights, and also all
material commodities which are not the result of human labour
from his consideration of the Law of Value; that is, he excludes
about 80 per cent, of valuable commodities from his Law of Value,
which is contrary to the fundamental laws of Natural Philosophy,
and therefore seals its condemnation.
Commodities which are the result of human labour, he divides
into three classes —
1. Those which are limited, and cannot be increased by human
labour.
He says that the value of these is governed solely by the Law of
Supply and Demand.
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 105
2. Those which can be increased indefinitely by the expenditure
of equal amounts of money.
The Value of these, he says, is determined exclusively by their
Cost of Production.
3. Those which can be increased indefinitely, but only by a
constantly increasing expense.
The Value of the total quantity produced, he says, is governed by
the last quantity produced at the greatest cost.
Such a mode of determining the Laws of Value is contrary to the
fundamental principles of Natural Philosophy, because Economics
being a science of Variable Quantities, there can be only one
general Theory of Value.
But on this subject he has plunged into innumerable self-
contradictions. For in Chap. i. Sect i. he says, "The Value of
a commodity, or the quantity of any other commodity for which it
will exchange, depends on the relative Quantity of Labour which is
necessary for its production, and not on the greater or less compen-
sation which is paid for that Labour" ; for he justly observes that
the same quantity of labour may be paid at different rates at
different times. Therefore, in this place, he expressly says that
it is not Cost of Production that regulates Value, but only Quantity
of Labour (Cost of Production).
But when he comes to Chap, xxx., he has quite lost sight of the
distinction he drew between Quantity of Labour and Cost of Pro-
duction, and treats them as identical. He says, " It is the Cost of
Production which must ultimately regulate the price of commodities,
and not, as has often been said, the proportion between the Supply
and Demand. . . .
"The opinion that the price of commodities depends solely on
the proportion of Supply to Demand, or Demand to Supply, has
been almost an axiom in Political Economy, and has been the cause
of much error in that science. ... Its natural price is the money
Cost of Production.,,
Then, after quoting Lord Lauderdale's Law of Value (Value),
he says, " This is true of monopolised commodities, and, indeed, of
the market price of all other commodities for a limited period."
Now, this is a flat violation of tjie Law of Continuity, which says,
" A Quantity cannot pass from one amount to another by any change
of conditions without passing through all the intermediate magnitudes
according to the intermediate conditions"
Now, as every Economist admits that when prices are very high
they are governed by the Law of Supply and Demand, and when
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106 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
they are very low that they are also governed by the same Law of
Supply and Demand, it follows that they must be governed by the
same general Law at all intermediate points. Thus Cost of Produc-
tion never directly governs price ; it is only in one class of cases that
it does so indirectly through the action of the Law of Supply and
Demand, as we have shown under Cost of Production.
But the Theory of Ricardo's which acquired the greatest notoriety
is his Theory of Rent, which comes under his third class of com-
modities. We cannot investigate that theory here, as we have fully
discussed it under Rent. Shortly stated, it is that the cost of
raising the last quantity of corn produced, regulates the value of
the whole. Loose writers allege that Anderson discovered this
theory before Ricardo. But this is absolutely incorrect. Anderson,
who was a practical farmer, maintains exactly the contrary. He
says that it is the price of corn which indicates the expense which
can be afforded for raising the last quantity produced; and every-
one who has the least knowledge of agricultural affairs can see at
once that Anderson is right.
No doubt, Ricardo's theory proves the point he wishes to estab-*
lish, that the payment of Rent does not raise the price of corn.
But a theory is not necessarily true, because it leads to a right
result. Many times truth has been built on erroneous theories.
Anderson's theory, which is the direct reverse of Ricardo's, leads
to exactly the same results. Under Rent, we have shown the
absurd consequences of Ricardo's theory.
Moreover, Ricardo contradicts himself; for though in one place
he maintains that the payment of Rent does not raise the price
of corn, in other places he alleges that it does. So that there
is exactly the same contradiction in Ricardo as there is in Smith.
Moreover, Ricardo alleges that Tithes are a tax on the consumer.
This shows Ricardo's want of scientific instinct, because Tithes
stand on exactly the same footing as Rent. The reason why
neither Tithes nor Rent increase the price of corn is that they
are not part of the Cost of Production, but a share of the profits ;
and neither of them affects the Supply nor the Demand for corn,
as we have shown under Rent.
Thus the whole structure of Ricardo's work is laid in ruins,
because it is contrary to facts,* to~ expedience, and to the funda-
mental laws 01 iNaturai jrnnosopny. ~~~ ~~~ ~~
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Ch. hi.] History of Economics 107
WHATELY.
The last writer I think necessary to cite here is Whately, Professor
of Political Economy at Oxford in 1832. He began his lectures by
finding fault with the name of Political Economy as being a new
term most unfortunately chosen, which, he says, almost implies a
contradiction. According to etymology, the branches of science
called iroXiTucrj and oucovo/ukiJ, seem naturally to have reference
respectively to ttoXis and oficos, one treating of the affairs and
regulation of a commonwealth, the other of a private family. This
shews that Oxford scholarship in those days — or at least Whately's
— left something to be desired. Because in Greek oficos does not
mean only a private family or a house, but as we have shewn
further on, it is the technical term for Property of all descriptions
and natures. He justly says that to persons who are habituated to
this employment of terms, the title of Political Economy is likely
to suggest very confused and indistinct, and, in a great degree,
incorrect notions.
He says — "A. Smith, indeed, has designated his work a treatise
on the 'Wealth of Nations,' but this supplies a name only for the
subject matter, not for the science itself. The name I should have
preferred as the most descriptive, and, on the whole, least objection-
able, is that of Catallactics, or the ' Science of Exchanges.'
"Man might be defined 'An animal that makes Exchanges' ; no
other, even of those animals which in other points make the nearest
approach to rationality, having, to all appearances, the least notion
of bartering, or in any way exchanging one thing for another. And
it is in this point of view alone that Man is contemplated by
Political Economy. This view does not essentially differ from that
of A. Smith, since in this science the term Wealth is limited to
exchangeable commodities, and it treats of them so far forth only as
they are, or are designed to be, the subjects of exchange. But for
this very reason it is, perhaps, the more convenient to describe
Political Economy as the science of Exchanges, rather than as the
science of National Wealth. For, the things themselves, of which
the science treats, are immediately removed from its province, if we
remove the possibility, or the intention, of making them the subject
of exchange, and this, though they may conduce in the highest
degree to happiness, which is the ultimate object, for the sake of
which wealth is sought. A man, for instance, on a desert island,
like Alex. Selkirk, or the personage his adventures are supposed to
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108 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
have suggested, Robinson Crusoe, is in a situation of which Political
Economy takes no cognizance; though he might figuratively be
called rich, if abundantly provided with food, raiment, and various
comforts; and though he might have many commodities at hand*
which would become exchangeable, and would constitute him,
strictly speaking, rich, as soon as fresh settlers should arrive.
"In like manner, a musical talent, which is wealth to a profes-
sional performer who makes the exercise of it a subject of exchange,
is not so to one of superior rank, who could not without degradation
so employ it It is in this last case, therefore, though a source of
enjoyment, out of the province of Political Economy.
"This limitation of the term Wealth to things contemplated as
exchangeable, has been objected to on the ground that it makes the
same thing to be wealth to one person and not to another. This
very circumstance has always appeared to me the chief recommen-
dation of such a use of the term, since the same thing is different
to different persons. Even if we determine to employ the terms
Wealth and Value in reference to every kind of possession, we must
still admit that there is at least some very great distinction between
the possession, for instance, of a collection of ornamental trees by a
nurseryman, who cultivates them for sale, and by a gentleman who
has planted them to adorn his grounds.
"Since, however, the popular use of the term Wealth is not always,
very precise, and since it may require, just in the outset, some degree
of attention to avoid being confused by contemplating the very
same thing as being, or not being, an article of wealth, according to
circumstances, I think it for this reason more convenient, on the
whole, to describe Political Economy, as concerned universally and
exclusively about exchanges."
Whately then goes on to speak of cases in which nothing visible
is transferred, but only a Right ; but he says that in such cases these
are, in reality, exchanges, just as where material commodities are
exchanged, which evinces the impropriety of limiting the term
Wealth to material objects.
Thus Whately agrees exactly with the unanimous doctrine of the
ancients that exchangeability is the sole essence and principle of
Wealth. That all things are Wealth only when and where they are
exchangeable, that when and where they are not exchangeable
they are not Wealth. This also agrees with the doctrine of the
Economists, that things, however useful and agreeable they may be,
are only technically to be termed Wealth when they are made
the subjects of exchange. But while the Economists restricted the
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€h. III.] History of Economics 1 09
*erm only to material things when they are exchanged and excluded
labour and Credit, Whately includes all the three orders of Ex-
changeable Quantities under the term Wealth. These are the
fundamental concepts which we adopt
Thus the result is that the technical meaning of Wealth, in
Economics, is simply anything whatever which is bought and sold
or exchanged.
Whately then (Lect. ix.) complains of the total want of clear and
precise definitions in Economics, and censures those who avow their
dislike of accurate and precise language on this subject, and object
to the pedantic practice of defining terms, like Jones, many of them
probably speak thus from really knowing no better — from having a
superficial and ill-cultivated mind.
"Definitions, then (such, I mean, as shall serve to preclude
ambiguity), are most wanted in those very cases where (as in
Political Economy) both the reader and the writer are the most
apt not to perceive the want, from the terms being such as are in
common use. And there is this additional difficulty, that here it
is necessary to define and use each term in some sense corre-
sponding as nearly as possible to common use — agreeably to some
one, and, if possible, the most usual of the several popular mean-
ings."
He then warns against using the same word in different senses
in different places, and gives several instances of such.
"Let the student then consider correctness of the reasoning
process, and, with a view to this, a clear definition of technical
terms, and careful adherence to the sense defined, as the first — the
most important — and the most difficult, in the science of Political
Economy."
Whately then makes some most important observations — " It may
be worth observing that in examining, framing, or altering definitions
in Political Economy, you will find in most persons a tendency to
introduce accidental along with or instead of essential circumstances.
I mean that the notion they attach to each term, and the explanation
they would give of it, shall embrace some circumstances generally \
hit not always, connected with the thing they are speaking of, and
which might accordingly (by the strict account of an accident) be
'absent or present, the essential character of the subject remaining
the same.' A definition framed from such circumstances, though
of course incorrect, and likely at some time or other to mislead us,
will not unfrequently obtain reception, from its answering the
purpose of a correct one, at a particular time and place
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no On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
"A specimen of that introduction of accidental circumstances
which I have been describing, may be found, I think, in the
language of a great number of writers respecting Wealth and
Value; who have usually made Labour an essential ingredient in
their definitions. Now it is true, it so happens, by the appointment
of Providence, that valuable articles are, in almost all instances,
obtained by Labour ; but still, this is an accidental, not an essential
circumstance. If the aerolites which occasionally fall were diamonds
and pearls, and if these articles could be obtained in no other way,
but were casually picked up to the same amount as is now obtained
by digging and diving, they would be of precisely the same value as
now. In this, as in many other points in Political Economy, men
are prone to confound cause and effect. It is not that pearls fetch
a high price because men have dived for them ; but on the contrary ',
men dive for them because they fetch a high price"
Thus Whately has sent a deadly shaft into the whole Economics
of Smith and Ricardo. Smith begins his work by describing
Wealth as the produce of "land and labour"; thus making
materiality and labour as the essence of Wealth; and he entirely
omits Exchangeability. Now, as a matter of fact, not twenty per
cent, of Economic or Exchangeable quantities have any labour
associated with them at all, and not five per cent, of Economic
quantities have materiality and labour associated with them,
which shows that materiality and labour are only the accidents
of Wealth and Value. It is Exchangeability, which is the sole
essence of Wealth, as the ancients unanimously held. The Eco-
nomists also held that Exchangeability is the real essence of
Wealth ; but they clogged it also with materiality, which is entirely
inadmissible.
Whately then said that pearls do not fetch a high price because
men dive for them, but men dive for them because men give a high
price for them ; that is, it is not Labour which is the cause of Value,
but Value which is the inducement to Labour ; just as Condillac
said before him ; and this is the entire boulversement of the
Economics of Smith and Ricardo.
Whately thus laid the foundation of that system of Economics
which I have adopted and developed.
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/
Ch. III.] History of Economics 1 1 1
The Economics of Jean Baptiste Say and John Stuart Mill.
JEAN BAPTISTE SAY.
LWe have shewn in the series of writers we have cited that the
universal idea of Economics was that it is the Science of Commerce,
or Exchanges, or the Theory of Valuejand though it was in a very
imperfect, confused, and contradictory state, yet if that concept had
been steadfastly adhered to, and worked out in all its extent, and
subjected to the same critical inquiry and elaboration as all the
other Physical Sciences had been treated with, all these blemishes
might have been removed, and Economics might have been raised
to the rank of a definite and positive science, of the same rank
as the Physical Sciences.
[Tiut unfortunately a very distinguished French writer threw it 4/
into utter confusion, and ruined it as the Science of Exchanges,.
or the Theory of Value. J3
We have shown that while the Economists declared that
Economics is the Science of Exchanges, or of Commerce, they
most unfortunately devised an alternative definition of it as the
" Production, Distribution, and Consumption of Wealth," by which,
however, they explained that they meant the Commerce, or the
Exchanges of the material products of the earth, and of those only*
[jn 1803 Jean Baptiste Say published his first work, " Traitt d*
Economic Politique: ou simple exposition de la mantere dont se *
forment se distribuent et se consomment les riehesses? In this he was
the first to confine the name of Political Economy to the Pro-
duction, Distribution, and Consumption of Wealth/J "Politics
properly so called, the science of the organization of societies,
has long been confounded with Political Economy, which teaches
how the riches which satisfy the wants of society are formed,
distributed, and consumed. Yet wealth is essentially independent
of political organisation. A state may prosper under all forms
of government, if it is well administered." He complains justly
that previous writers had thrown the subject into confusion by
mixing up questions of Government with questions of Wealth.
Say, then, enters into a highly philosophical dissertation on the
nature and method of investigation proper to Economics. He says
that men have made systems before establishing truths. He
condemns severely the dogmatic and h priori method which had
been followed by the school of Quesnay and Ricardo, who adopt a
method of arguing which would not be allowed in any other
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112 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
science of experiment, which resembled that of the scholastics
of the middle ages, who discussed words and not facts, which proved
everything except the truth. By following this method Ricardo
arrived at results which are contradicted by experience. This was
followed by interminable controversies, often scarcely intelligible,
which had the unfortunate effect of making men of the world,
ignorant of the solid bases upon which Economics is built, think
that they had again fallen under the empire of systems and private
opinions which agreed in nothing.
He says that the writings of the ancients shewed that they had no
just ideas on the nature of Wealth. But in this Say is entirely
mistaken, because the ancients unanimously held that Exchange-
ability is the sole essence and principle of Wealth, an idea which
is only just now beginning to be generally recognised by Economists
at the present day.
Say then observes that the Economists deserved general esteem
because their writings favoured the most severe morality, and the
freedom which every one ought to have to dispose of his person at
will, of his talents and his possessions — freedom without which
individual and public prosperity were words void of sense. It was
for this reason that nearly all French writers of repute, and those
who studied matters analogous to Economics since 1760, were
dominated by their ideas. Among them Condillac might be
included, although he tried to make a system of his own, on a
subject which he did not understand. There were, however, some
good ideas amid the ingenious chatter of his book. This judgment
of Say's on Condillac is most unfortunate, because Condillac under-
stood the nature of Economics far better than Say himself did ; and
his system, which is that of Commerce or Exchanges, according to
the prevalent idea of the age, has now superseded that of Say
among all the most advanced Economists of the present day. It
must be admitted, however, that it is too much an abstract assertion
of principles without a sufficient exposition of the facts of com-
merce. He admits, however, that the Italian Economists, Beccaria,
Verri, Filangieri, and others, excelled the French Economists.
Say then recognises the importance of Adam Smith's work, and
allows it great merit in some respects. But he condemns the con-
fusion and total want of method which pervades it, and points out
numerous deficiencies.
Say emphatically asserts that Economics is essentially an Induc-
tive Science, and to be constructed in exactly the same manner
that all the Physical Sciences have been done. He says that some
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Ch. in.] History of Economics 113
persons believe that only the Physical Sciences are capable of being
reduced to certainty, and that there are no constant facts and
undoubted truths in moral and political sciences; and, therefore,
that they are not true sciences, but only a body of hypothetical
opinions, more or less ingenious, but purely individual. These
persons found their opinion upon the fact that the writers on it
differ from each other, and some of them taught veritable extrava-
gances. •
But it has been the same in every other science— chemistry, physics,
botany, mineralogy, physiology. Leibniz and Newton, Linnaeus and
Jussieu, Priestley and Lavoisier, de Saussure and Dolomieu, had not
been able to agree, but for all that did not these sciences exist ?
We have now, then, to see how Say realised his own ideas.
System of J. B. Say.
Unfortunately Say rejected the concept that Economics is the
Science of Commerce, or Exchanges, or the Theory of Value, and
he adopted the alternative definition of the Economists, that it is
the Science of the Production, Distribution, and Consumption of
Wealth, but he completely changed the meaning of these terms as
used by the Economists. While the Economists used that expres-
sion as one and indivisible, Say broke it up into its component
terms, and divided his treatise into three parts — (1) the Production
of WeaJth, (2) the Distribution of Wealth, (3) the Consumption of
Wealth.
The Traitk is defective, because it begins by giving no definition
of the term Wealth, which is the basis of the whole science, but in
his Cours complct d* Economie Politique, which is a very greatly
extended and developed edition of his TraitS, he begins by dis-
cussing the nature of Wealth.
He says — " The exclusive possession which, among a community
of men, distinguishes the property of one man from others, is what
is termed Wealth." And, among other things, he designates as
Wealth, Rights of Action, Credits or Debts, and the Funds : he also
adds a workman's labour, the skill of a physician, a theatrical per-
formance, the dienielle of an advocate, the custom of a shop, the
copyright of a book, and many other things of a similar nature,
which he designates as Immaterial Wealth. But Say's definition is
defective, because he enumerates all a man's possessions as Wealth,
and he omits the fundamental property of Exchangeability. The
Economists confined the term Wealth to a man'spossessions which
r »*^ OFTHF ^
UNIVERSITY/
114 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
are Exchangeable. If a man has possessions which he cannot
exchange away, how are they any more Wealth to him than so many
pebbles from the brook ?
It is true he does afterwards recognise Exchangeability as
necessary to Value, but that unfortunately creates a confusion
between his fundamental concepts.
He then inquires into the origin of Value, and entirely repudiates
the doctrine of Smith and Ricardo, that Labour is the cause of
Value. He alleges that Value can only reside in the thing itself,
and, according to him, all Value is founded on Utility. But this
is only one degree less erroneous than the idea that Labour is the
cause of Value. We have shewn, under Value, how erroneous it
is to say that Labour is the cause of Value, because if that were
true, an isolated or single object could have Value, which is utterly
impossible : because Value is a term of relation, and there can be
no Value unless there are, at least, two objects. Moreover, if an
object were once created by any amount of Labour, it could never
change its Value, which is contrary to all experience.
Utility is one degree less erroneous than Labour as the cause of
Value, because if a thing is useful, it must be useful to some person.
But, then, if Utility is the cause of Value, things must be
valuable in proportion to their Utility, which, as we have shewn
under Value, is utterly contrary to experience.
Thus—
i. A horn spoon or a glass tumbler is quite as useful as a solid
gold spoon or a solid gold tumbler, but have they the same Value ?
2. A lindsey woolsey, or a serge dress, is quite as useful as one of
Genoa velvet or brocaded silk, but would they have the same Value
in the eyes of ladies ?
3. A steel watchguard is quite as useful as one of solid gold, but
has it the same value ?
4. If the works of two watches were of exactly equal quality, and
if one were enclosed in a silver case, and the other in a case of solid
gold studded with diamonds and rubies, they would be equally
useful, but would they have the same Value?
And similar instances might be multiplied to infinity.
Say calls the Utility of a thing its Intrinsic Value.
But in other places he says that Value is a Moral Quality. And
how can a moral quality be an attribute of a material object, or an
abstract Right ?
It was this doctrine which the Economists earnestly warned their
readers against They constantly inculcated that Economics has
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 115
nothing to do with Value in use, but only with Value in Exchange.
Thus the whole basis of Say's system is shown to be erroneous, and
the whole structure falls in ruin.
We have said that Say adopted the alternative definition of the
Economists, and styled Economics the science of the " Production,
Distribution, and Consumption of Wealth." But that he completely
changed the meaning of these terms.
By Production the Economists meant bringing a material object
into commerce,- and offering it for sale, in strict conformity with the
meaning of the Latin producere (Production).
Littr£ says, Produire: pousser en avant. Faire voiry mettre sous Us
yeux ; and he gives several applications of this idea. But he gives
no instance whatever of the word being used as creating or adding
utility to an object.
And he defines Production as action de produire, de mettre en
avant
But Say says, " One cannot create objects : the mass of matter
of which the world is composed cannot be increased nor diminished.
All that we can do is to reproduce these matters under another form,
which makes them fit for some use they had not before, or which
augments the utility which they already had Thus there is the
creation, not of matter, but of Utility ; and since this utility gives
them Value, there is the production of Wealth.
It is thus we must understand the word production in Economics,
and through the whole course of this work. Production is not the
creation of matter, but the creation of utility.
And in the definitions at the end of the Traitd he says :
"Production: produire — to produce is to give anything a recog-
nized Value, able to procure by exchange something else of equal
value; it is also to augment the recognized value which anything
already has."
He also says that everything which is Produced is Consumed.
How far this is true we shall have to inquire shortly.
Now there is no warrant in any language for such a meaning of
the word Production. It is a pure perversion of ideas, quite peculiar
to Say, and totally inadmissible.
Say's second book is on the Distribution of Wealth. Now by
Distribution the Economists meant the intermediate sales or ex-
changes an object undergoes between the person who first produces,
or brings it into the market and offers it for sale, and the final
purchaser or consumer who buys it for personal use and enjoyment,
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n6 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
and takes it out of the market. Thus the Economists treated only
of distribution by exchange. Say does not differ from this materially,
for he says :
"Distribution (of created values or of the value of products).
It operates by the purchase by a manager of industry, of the
productive services of his co-producers, or of a product which has
not yet received the final form which it ought to receive. This
purchase is an advance which the last undertaker, who is usually a
retail dealer, is repaid by the consumer."
Say has also quite perverted the meaning of the word Con-
sommation or Consumption. The word Consommation was used
by all French Economical writers previous to Say to mean simply
purchase, or Demand. It means completion, from consommer, which
comes from the Latin consummare, to complete or accomplish.
The Producteur was the person who brought any object into com-
merce and offered it for sale; the Consommateur was the person
who bought it for use and enjoyment, and took it out of commerce
(Consumption).
So also Adam Smith uses Consumer as equivalent to Purchaser.
In the ordinary language of commerce the Producer is the person
who offers any article for sale, the Consumer is the person who
purchases it. So Burke says, "The meeting of Producer and
Consumer makes market." So Smith says, "Consumption is the
sole end and purpose of all Production," which is merely saying
that things are offered for sale for the purpose of being sold. By
the word Consumption, as used by all these writers, there never
was any idea of destruction involved.
Say says: "The reader must understand that as Production
is not the creation of a matter, but the creation of Utility, so
Consumption is not the destruction of Matter, but the destruction
of utility. The utility of a thing once destroyed, the first foundation
of its value, which made it sought for, which establishes the demand
for it, is destroyed. Thenceforth it has no value, it is not a portion
of wealth.
" Hence to consume {consommer), to destroy the value of things,
to annihilate the value of things, are expressions whose meaning
is absolutely the same, and corresponds to that of the words
produce, give utility, create value, whose meaning is also the same.
" All Consumption being the destruction of value is not measured
by the volume, the number, or the weight of the products consumed
but by their value."
Also he says in the epitome at the end of the Traiti.:
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Ch. in.] ' History of Economics 117
" Consommateur : is he who destroys the value of a product,
either to produce another, or to satisfy his tastes or wants.
" Consommation ; Consommer : to consume (consommer) is to
destroy the value of a thing, or a portion of its value, by destroying
the utility which it had, or a portion of that utility.
" We cannot consume (consommer) that which cannot be destroyed.
Thus we can consume the service of ah industry, and not the
industrial faculty which has rendered this service: the service of
land, but not the land itself.
"A value cannot be consumed twice: for to say that a thing
is consumed is to say that it does not exist any more. .
"Everything which is produced is consumed: therefore every
value created is destroyed, and was only created to be destroyed."
" Again he says: "The most immediate effect of every kind
of consumption (consommation) is the loss of value, and therefore of
wealth, which follows for the possessor of the product consumed
(consommi). This effect is constant, inevitable, and we must never
lose sight of it in reasoning on these matters. A product consumed
(consommi) is a value lost for all the world and for ever."
And this meaning of consumption as destruction was adopted by
other writers. Thus Malthus says, " Consumption, the destruction
wholly or in part of any portions of Wealth," and " Consumption
is the great purpose and end of all production."
So McCulloch says; "By consumption is meant the annihilation
of these qualities which render commodities useful, or desirable.
To consume the products of arts or industry is to deprive the
matter of which they consist of utility, and consequently of the
exchangeable value communicated to it by labour. Consumption
is, in fact, the end and object of human exertion: and when a
commodity is in a fit state to be used, if its consumption be
deferred, a loss is incurred."
These sentences are a flagrant example of the thoughtless way
in which Economical writers dump down doctrines in their works
without the least reflection as to their consistency with facts and
reality. It is astonishing that men of ability should maintain such a
monstrous paradox as that everything which is produced is
destroyed: that it is only produced for the purpose of being
destroyed ; and that if it is not destroyed a loss is incurred.
If Consumption is used in its proper sense it is true that
Consumption is the object of all Production. Because, as said
above, Production only means offering for sale, and things are
offered for sale for the purpose of being sold. But are all things
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n8 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
produced destroyed? Are all things produced for the purpose of
being destroyed ? And is a loss incurred if they are not destroyed
as soon as produced ?
A young man purchases a gold ring, enriched with diamonds and
rubies, for his lady-love. The jeweller is the producer, and the
young man is the consumer. Does he buy the ring for the
purpose of destroying it? Is there any necessity for its ever being
destroyed ? It may last to the end of time. Is a loss incurred if it
is not destroyed as soon as it is bought?
Men search for precious stones, diamonds, emeralds, rubies, etc.,
in the mines. They offer them for sale ; they are the Producers.
Other persons purchase them, i.e. consume them. Are the diamonds,
emeralds, and rubies, destroyed as soon as they are purchased?
Were they sought for for the purpose of being destroyed ? And is
a loss incurred if they are not destroyed ?
And innumerable other examples will occur to any reader.
Say himself gives an example, showing the absurdity of his own
doctrine: "The English succeed in making very fine glass for
mirrors, and could supply them at a very moderate price, if the
enormous duties laid on the manufacture of glass in England did
not raise the product to a price which many consumers (consom-
mateurs) cannot afford." "The consumers (consommateurs) of pro-
ducts are their buyers."
Now, did the consumers of the mirrors, i.e. their purchasers,
smash them? Did they buy them for the purpose of smashing
them ? And was loss incurred if they were not smashed as soon as
they were bought ?
It is such fatuous doctrines as these which led a good many
persons to say with only too much truth, that Economics is only
a mass of clotted nonsense.
The fact is that Production and Consumption mean simply
Supply and Demand, and together constitute Exchange or Com-
merce.
By breaking up Economics into three separate departments under
the terms Production, Distribution, and Consumption, Say has com-
pletely ruined Economics as the Science of Commerce or Exchanges,
and broken the back of the Theory of Value. How is it possible to
discuss the Theory of Value under the expression, Production, Dis-
tribution, and Consumption of Wealth ?
Say perfectly acknowledges that Labour is an Economic Quantity,
and is bought and sold, and, like Adam Smith, has many interesting
discussions on Wages or the price of Labour. Labour is bought
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Ch. HI.] History of Economics 1 19
and sold, and its value is determined by the general Law of Value.
But what sense is there in speaking of the Production, Distribution,
and Consumption of Labour?
Again. Say acknowledges that Rights of Action, Credits and
Debts, and the Funds, are Wealth. They are bought and sold or
exchanged. He also acknowledges that a vast variety of other
abstract Rights are Wealth. But how is it possible to speak of the
Production, Distribution, and Consumption, of Bank Notes, Bills of
Exchange, and the Funds ? The copyright of a book or a drama
or a song is a saleable commodity. It may be bought and sold.
But how are we to speak of the Production, Distribution, and
Consumption of Copyrights?
Say acknowledges that the practice of a professional man and the
custom of a shop are saleable commodities, and may be bought and
sold But how are we to speak of the Production, Distribution,
and Consumption of the practice of a profession or the custom of
a shop ? And so on of a vast variety of other rights.
The fact is that Say quite overlooked the fact that when the
Economists devised the term, the Production, Distribution, and
Consumption of Wealth, they expressly restricted it to material
products, and so defined the terms as to mean the commerce or
exchanges of the material products of the earth, and of these only.
But when Labour and Rights are introduced into Economics, it
becomes simply unintelligible jargon. With such a concept it is
impossible to give an exposition of the principles and mechanism
of the great system of Mercantile Credit, the colossal business of
Banking, and the Foreign Exchanges, which all come naturally
under the concept of Economics as the sciences of commerce or
exchanges, because all these operations are commerce or exchanges*
and come under the Theory of Value.
One of the subjects on which Say's doctrine is the most notorious
is his confusion on credit. He begins by recognizing that Rights
of Action, Credits or Debts, are Wealth, and in a multitude of places
he speaks of them as being capable of being employed as Capital,
as well as any other commodities ; and he says that if a Bank can
keep in circulation a greater amount of credit than the quantity of
specie it holds in reserve, that is an augmentation of capital, and he
inquires who gets the benefit of this new Capital. And yet this very
same Say says elsewhere that to assert that Credit is Capital is to main-
tain that the same thing can be in two places at once ! And multi-
tudes of writers have repeated this silly sarcasm. Whence then is the
origin of this flagrant contradiction ? It is simply that in these two
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120 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
places Say has contradictory notions of the fundamental concept of
Credit In one set of passages he treats Credit as the present right
to a future payment, and then he allows that this may be bought and
sold and employed as Capital In the other passages he considers
the Credit to be the goods " lent " — i.e. sold ; and then he asks, How
can the same goods be in two places at once, and serve two people
at the same time ?
We have fully exhibited Say's amazing confusion and self-contra-
dictions under Credit
. There are, no doubt, multitudes of philosophical observations
and acute remarks throughout the whole of Say's work, which deserve
attention ; but, as a whole, as a general treatise on the Science of
Economics, it is a chaos of confusion and contradictions, and
utterly impossible.
JOHN STUART MILL.
: John Stuart Mill was the friend and disciple of Jean Baptiste
Say, and having already published a small volume of Essays on
some Unsettled Questions in Political Economy ', published in 1848 his
Principles of Political Economy \ which was immediately received
with unbounded applause as the ne plus ultra of Economics.
One writer in the Edinburgh Review went so far as to style it a
KTrjjXa €S <U€l.
Now of all the persons who lavished such unbounded applause
on this work there was not a single one who had the faintest know-
ledge of Mercantile Law, nor of practical business, nor of the
method of applying the principles of Natural Philosophy to the
phenomena of Economics.
Mill was a disciple of Say in so far as this, that he in agreement
with Say deliberately rejected the fundamental concept of Economics
as being the Science of Commerce, or Exchanges, or the Theory of
Value.
r He says,1 " The subject upon which we are now about to enter
[Exchange] fills so important and conspicuous a position in Political
Economy, that in the apprehension of some thinkers its boundaries
confound themselves with those of the science itself. One eminent
writer [Whately] has proposed as a name for Political Economy,
" Catallactics/' or the Science of Exchanges, by others [McCulloch]
it has been called the Science of Values. If these denominations
1 Princ. of Pol. Ecoiu bk. iii. chap. i.
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 121
had appeared to me logically correct, I must have placed the dis-
cussion of the elementary laws of value at the commencement of
our enquiry instead of postponing it to the third part; and the
possibility of so long deferring it is alone a sufficient proof that this
view of the nature of Political Economy is too confined. It is true
that in the preceding Books we have not escaped the necessity of
anticipating some small portion of the theory of Value, especially as
to the Value of labour and land. It is nevertheless evident that of
the two great departments of Political Economy, the production of
wealth and its distribution, the consideration of Value has to do
with the latter alone [the Economists unanimously declared that
production and distribution constitute Exchange, or Value] ; and
with that only so far as competition, and not usage or custom, is the
distributing agency."
Now let us ask what there is contrary to the laws of Logic in
saying that the phenomena of Commerce, or Exchanges, form a
distinct and positive science, all based on a single general funda-
mental concept, and as capable of being erected into a definite and
positive science exactly in the same way as the phenomena of
Force, Light, or Heat, or any other physical science ? And what is
there contrary to the laws of Logic in giving a distinct name to this
science, such as Political Economy, Economics, Catallactics, or any
other? This was the universal opinion before J. £. Say, and in
ignoring this, Mill showed that he was ignorant of the history of
Economics.
Mill says that he has not escaped the necessity of anticipating
some small portion of the theory of Value before he comes to
Exchange. But in the books preceding Exchange he discusses
Wages, Profits, and Rent, and these are not a very small portion of
the theory of Value, as Mill says, but a very large portion of it ;
indeed, some writers seem to consider that they constitute the
whole theory of Value.
Mill then says — "In a state of society, however, in which the
industrial system is entirely founded on purchase and sale, each
individual for the most part living not on things in the production
of which he himself bears a part, but of things obtained by a
double exchange, a sale followed by a purchase — the question of
Value is fundamental. Almost every speculation respecting the
economical interests of society thus constituted implies some theory
of Value; the smallest error on that subject infects with corresponding
error all our other conclusions ; and anything vague or misty in our
conception of it creates confusion and uncertainty in everything else."
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122 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. L
Here Mill has completely cut the ground from under his own
feet, as he has done in almost every other case. Because the very
purpose of Economics is to consider a state of society in which the
industrial system is entirely founded on purchase and sale, in which
each individual for the most part lives not on the things which he
himself produces, but on things obtained by a double exchange,
therefore by Mill's own showing Economics is nothing but the
Theory of Value.
We have now shown enough to shake the confidence of any
intelligent and impartial reader in the infallibility of Mill, because
his own admission condemns the whole of his own system of
Economics. But we have now to exhibit something more startling
still if that be possible.
In Book I., chap, i., we have shown Mill's astounding self-con-
tradiction as to the proper method of Investigation in Economics.
We have shown that in eloquent passages in his Logic he maintains
that Economics is an Inductive Science, and that the backward
state of the Moral Sciences can only be remedied by applying to
them the methods of Physical Science duly extended and generalised.
That the only hope of reducing such studies into a science is by
the employment of stricter rules of Induction than are commonly
recognised, and consciously and deliberately applied to these more
difficult inquiries. Brave and eloquent words indeed i And now
we have to see how far Mill has followed the course marked out by
himself.
In his Essays upon some unsettled questions of Political Economy,
he strenuously maintains that Economics is an a priori science, that
it reasons, and must necessarily reason, from assumptions and not
from facts 1 That any Economist who denies this places himself in
the wrong ! That this is its character as understood and taught by
all its most distinguished teachers 1 And that the a priori method
is not only a legitimate mode of philosophical investigation in
Economics, but it is the only one I
Now here Mill is in flat rebellion against his master Say, and in
flat contradiction to himself.
An a priori science is a science which a man can concoct out of
his own brains, or evolve out of his own inner consciousness, sitting
at his desk without any reference to external nature, or to facts, as
Mill himself says — such as Geometry, Trigonometry, Conic Sections,
the Differential Calculus, or any other purely mathematical science.
Now, if a man were to set himself down at his desk and write
a large volume on the Geology of Australia, or any other country,
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Ch. ill.] History of Economics 123
without having the slightest knowledge of the science of Geology,
and never having been in any of these countries — or if he should
write a large work on surgery out of his own imagination, without
having the least knowledge of surgery — or upon medicine without
the least knowledge of the medicinal effect of drugs — or on the
phenomena of force — or light — or heat— or electricity, or any other
subject requiring an exhaustive knowledge and study of facts — in
what terms should we characterise such works? — in terms, I fear,
which would be scarcely parliamentary.
Now the first necessity of an Economist is to have a thorough
knowledge of the most abstruse and subtle department of mercantile
law, then to have a thorough knowledge of practical business, and
then to have an adequate knowledge of physical science, and of the
methods by which the various physical sciences have been con-
structed, so as to bring the phenomena of commerce under the
dominion of the laws of physical science.
Now Mill knew absolutely nothing of mercantile law— he never
had the least knowledge of practical business — and as the late
Professor Adams said to me one day at Cambridge, he knew nothing
of physical science ; and yet he writes a large work on a subject in
which these various departments of knowledge are requisite. Every
page of his work is full of the most glaring ignorance and blunders ;
and there is scarcely a single point in which he does not contradict
himself. Now, in sober seriousness, we must ask how is this more
consistent with scientific morality than cheating at cards, or forgery,
or issuing base coin.
We have already given specimens of his self-contradictions on the
nature of the science itself, and of the method of investigation
proper to it We shall now investigate his doctrines on Wealth and
Value, which are the two fundamental concepts of the science.
Mill divides his work into (1) Production ; (2) Distribution, and
(3) Exchange. Now Production and Distribution, in the language
of the Economists, meant Exchange ; therefore Mill's work is simply
on Exchange and Exchange. He rightly considers that Consump-
tion, in Say's sense of destruction, forms no part of Economics.
The first grave and fundamental defect of Mill's work is, that he
rushes into Production without first clearly and finally determining
the meaning of Wealth, which is the basis of the whole science.
He. begins by saying truly enough (Preliminary Remarks) that
the subject of Economics is Wealth. But then he says — " Everyone
has a notion, sufficiently correct for common purposes, of what is
meant by Wealth. ... It is no part of the design of this treatise
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124 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
to aim at metaphysical nicety of definition, where the ideas sug-
gested by a term are already as determinate as practical purposes
require."
Such doctrines as these strike us with amazement in a professed
writer on Logic. Are not the whole physical sciences based on the
strictest nicety in the definition of fundamental concepts? Have
there not been the fiercest controversies to determine their
meaning? And it is only by means of these controversies that they
have been raised to their present position.
Mill himself says — "Since reasoning or inference, the principal
subject of Logic, is an operation which usually takes place by
means of words, and in complicated cases can take place in no
other way : those who have not a thorough insight into the significa-
tion and purposes of words will be under chances amounting almost
to a certainty of reasoning or inferring incorrectly. And logicians
have generally felt that unless in the very first stage they removed
this fertile source of error, unless they taught their pupil to put
away the glasses which distort the object, and to use those which
are adapted to his purpose in such a manner as to assist, not perplex
his vision, he would not be in a condition to practise the remaining
part of their discipline with any prospect of advantage. Therefore
it is that an inquiry into language, so far as it is needful to guard
againsf the errors to which it gives rise, has at all times been
deemed a necessary preliminary to the study of logic.
, " But there is another reason of a still more fundamental nature
why the import of words should be the earliest subject of a logician's
consideration, because without it he cannot examine into the import
of propositions?
So again — " But to penetrate to the more hidden agreement on
which these obvious and superficial agreements depend is often one
of the most difficult of scientific problems. As it is among the most
difficult, so it seldom fails to be among the most important And
since upon the result of this inquiry respecting the causes of the
properties of a class of things, there incidentally depends the ques-
tion— What shall be the meaning of a word ? Some of the most
profound and most valuable investigations which philosophy
presents to us have been introduced by, and have offered them-
selves under the guise of, inquiries into the definition of a name."
Out of numerous other passages to the same purpose, we may
cite one more — "And the student of logic, in the discussion even
of such truths as we have cited above, acquires habits of circum-
spect interpretations of words, and of exactly measuring the length
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Ch. ill.] History of Economics 125
and breadth of his assertions, which are among the most indis-
pensable conditions of any considerable mental attainment, and
which it is one of the primary objects of logical discipline to:
cultivate."
Mill on Wealth.
We shall now see whether Mill has observed his admirable
precepts with regard to the formation of Definitions, any better
than he has his admirable precepts about the construction of
Economics as a science, and whether he himself has any definite
notion of the meaning of Wealth.
In his Preliminary Remarks, he says — " Everything forms, there-
fore, a part of Wealth which has a power of purchasing" Now here
we have a perfectly clear and definite concept of Wealth, exactly
agreeing with that of Aristotle and all ancient writers. In this
passage Mill makes Exchangeability, and that only, the essence
and principle of Wealth — that is, everything which can be bought
and sold, or exchanged, no matter what its form or its nature
may be. This definition manifestly includes all the three orders
of Exchangeable Quantities — material products, personal qualities,
and abstract rights. And if Wealth be anything which has pur-
chasing power, the Production of Wealth must be the production
of anything which can be bought and sold. Now having got this
definition, which is perfectly correct, we might have expected that
all controversies were at an end; and as the essence of Wealth is-
Exchangeability, the Science of Wealth can be nothing else than
the Science of Exchanges, or the Theory of Value.
But at the end of the Preliminary Remarks he says — "The
production of Wealth : the extraction of the instruments of human
subsistence and enjoyment from the materials of the globe, &c"
In this passage Mill has completely changed his fundamental
concept of Wealth. Here he makes Wealth to be merely the
instruments of human subsistence and enjoyment, and all to be
extracted from the materials of the globe, and the quality of
. Exchangeability has totally disappeared. These two passages are
in complete contradiction to each other, and we are once more
plunged into Physiocracy, from which we had hoped to be delivered.
Now Mill admits that Personal Qualities are Wealth, both in the
form of Labour and Personal Credit — and how are these extracted
from the materials of the globe ?
Mill admits abstract Rights, such as Credits or Debts, to be
Wealth — and how are abstract Rights extracted from the materials
of the globe?
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126 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
In Book I., chap, iii., on Unproductive Labour, we are plunged
into more confusion. He is recalled to the meaning of Wealth. He
says — "Productive Labour means Labour productive of Wealth.
We are recalled, therefore, to the question touched upon in our
first chapter, what Wealth is, and whether only material products,
or all useful products, are to be included in it."
He says that utilities produced by labour are of three kinds —
(i) utilities embodied in outward objects; (2) utilities embodied
in human beings; (3) utilities not embodied in any object, but
consisting in a mere service rendered, a pleasure given, an incon-
venience or a pain averted—*".*., all labour and services.
He then says that utilities of the third class, which consist only
in services which only exist while being performed, cannot be
spoken of as Wealth except by an acknowledged metaphor.
But here Mill is in contradiction with all ancient writers, and,
as is invariably the case, with himself. Aristotle says that Wealth
is anything whose value can be measured in money ; Ulpian says
that Wealth is anything which can be bought and sold ; and Mill
says that Wealth is anything which has purchasing power.
Now labour and services, knowledge, have a value which can
be measured in money — they can be bought and sold, they have
purchasing power, and therefore they are Wealth.
But Mill says — "It is essential to the idea of Wealth to be
susceptible of accumulation." Now here is a perfectly new idea
introduced into the concept of Wealth. He says — " I should prefer,
were I constructing a new technical language, to make the distinc-
tion turn upon the Permanence rather than upon the Materiality
of the product."
Now this doctrine is a violation of one of the fundamental
principles of Natural Philosophy — the Law of Continuity, Things
whose value can be measured in money, which can be bought and
sold, or have purchasing power, are of all degrees of permanence ;
from the land and many other things, such as diamonds, emeralds,
and other precious stones, &c, which may last for ever, to things
which have a constantly diminishing degree of permanence — such
as houses, watches, clothes, food, &c, down to labour, which
perishes in the using, and has the least degree of permanence.
Now at what degree of permanence, and at what number of
exchanges, are we to draw the line between Wealth and Not-Wealth?
Mill gives us not the least clue. Now the Law of Continuity says,
" That which is true up to the Limit is true at the Limit." Now the
lowest Limit of Exchange is one, and the lowest degree of
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 127
Permanence is that which perishes in the act of exchange. These
are what Bacon calls instances of Ultimity or Limit. Labour is
only capable of one exchange, and it only exists during the act of
performance. But it possesses the quality of Exchangeability, or
the capability of being bought and sold; and therefore by the
fundamental law of Natural Philosophy it is necessarily included
under the tide of Wealth. The question involved is no slight one,
nor a piece of mere logomachy ; it is simply whether Labour is to
be considered as an Economic Quantity, and subject to the general
Law of Value.
On the same page he says, "I shall, therefore, in this treatise
when speaking of Wealth, understand by it only what is called
material Wealth." But within an inch of this sentence he says,
" The skill and energy and perseverance of the artisans of a country
are reckoned part of its Wealth, no less than their tools and
machinery." And why are not also the skill, energy, and per-
severance of the lawyers, doctors, engineers, and all other professional
men equally part of the Wealth of the country? Also he says,
" Acquired capacities which exist only as a means, and have been
called into existence by labour, fall rightly, as it seems to me, within
that designation. Now are skill and energy, perseverance and
acquired capacities, material wealth, and extracted from the materials
of the globe ?
Again Mill fully admits that Personal Credit and Rights of Action
are Wealth, as shewn under Credit. Now is Personal Credit, and
are Rights of Action, material wealth, and extracted from the
materials of the globe?
In his first book Mill maintains that Land, Labour, and Capital
are required for the production of Wealth. But is everything which
has purchasing power the product of land, labour, and capital?
Are personal qualities, is knowledge and science, the product of
land, labour, and capital? Are Rights of Action, which Mill
acknowledges to be Wealth, the products of land, labour, and
capital? Mill's master, Say, says that if a Bank can maintain in
circulation an amount in Credit greater than the cash it holds in
reserve, that augments the capital of the country. It is therefore
the production of wealth ; and is it the product of land, labour, and
capital ?
When, therefore, Mill says that every one has a sufficiently correct
idea of what Wealth is, it appears that he has no correct ideas
himself on the subject, and his notions are a chaos of confusion
and contradictions.
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128 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
Mill on Value.
We have now to see how Mill discusses Value, the next most
important fundamental concept of Economics.
He rightly enough says — " Value is a relative term. The Value
of a thing means the quantity of some other thing, or of things
in general, which it exchanges for." But yet he is in some few
instances betrayed into the absurdity of speaking of intrinsic value ;
as where in Book III. ch. xiiL, he speaks of pieces of paper having
no intrinsic value. However, we may pass these over.
The really important thing is what his ideas are of the Laws
of Value.
Now Mill himself says, following Bacon, that Economics can
only be erected into a definite, positive science by strictly following
the methods which have been followed in constructing the Physical
Science.
Which physical science is the type to be followed in constructing
the science of Economics? Evidently it is Astronomy, because
the fundamental problem in Economics is exactly identical with the
fundamental problem in Astronomy. In Astronomy we have a
series of quantities — the heavenly bodies, in constant motion, con-
stantly varying their relative distances from each other, sometimes
advancing, sometimes apparently stationary, sometimes receding,,
and the problem is to discover some single general Law which
accounts for all these phenomena.
In Economics we have also a vast series of quantities, constantly
varying in their exchangeable relations with each other, and the
problem is to discover some single general Law which governs
the varying relations of all these quantities.
All Economical writers before Smith held that the Law of Supply
and Demand governed all these changes in Value, and they never
made any attempt to prove it, because it was never denied, but
always assumed.
With Smith the reign of chaos set in, because he never perceived
the necessity of reducing all the phenomena of Value to a single
general Law ; but he goes along catching at a new Law of Value
for every set of cases he happens to be discussing.
Ricardo rightly saw that this was inadmissible, and that it was
necessary to devise general Laws of Value. But he was most
unfortunate in his attempt, from his total want of knowledge of
the principles of Natural Philosophy. Instead of collecting all
instances of Value before forming a theory of Value, he considers
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 129
only material products the result of human labour, and he divides
these into three classes, and contends that there is a distinct
fundamental theory of Value for each of them. But this method
is contrary to the fundamental principles of Natural Philosophy, and
totally inadmissible.
Mill has adopted Ricardo's system in its entirety; but the
slightest reflection will show that there are many other classes of
commodities besides those mentioned by Ricardo.
Mill accordingly says that it is necessary to take notice of certain
cases to which, from their peculiar nature, this Law of Value is
inapplicable. As, for example, the case of two different com-
modities having a joint cost of production, being both products
of the same operation; and the same outlay would have to be
incurred for either of the two if the other were not wanted at all.
As, for instance, gas and coke are both produced from the same
material, and by the same operation; so also mutton and wool;
beef, hides, and tallow; calves and dairy produce; chickens and
eggs. "Cost of production," he says, "can have nothing to do
with deciding the value of the associated commodities relatively
to each other; it only decides their joint value. The gas and
the coke together have to repay the expenses of their production
with their ordinary profit." But how much of the remuneration
of the producer shall be derived from the coke, and how much
from the gas, remains to be decided. Cost of production does
not determine their prices, but the sum of their prices. A principle
is wanting to apportion the expenses of production between the
two.
" Since Cost of Production here fails us, we must revert to a Law
of Value anterior to Cost of Production, and more fundamental, the
Law of Supply and Demand"
So here Mill acknowledges that the Law of Supply and Demand
is more fundamental than that of Cost of Production, which at once
annihilates the false distinction, made by Ricardo and adopted by
Mill, between the two classes of cases.
A little further on Mill says — " This theorem is not of any great
importance ; but the iUustration it affords of the Law of Demand
and of the mode in which, when Cost of Production fails to be
applicable, the other principle steps in to supply the vacancy (! !), is
worthy of particular attention, as we shall find, in the next chapter
but one, that something very similar takes place in cases of much
greater moment"
This mode of arguing in Economics is just as rational and as
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130 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. i.
admissible as it would be in Astronomy to say, "In this class of
cases the Ptolemaic Theory fails us, and we must adopt the other,
or Copernican Theory, to supply the vacancy " ; or in Optics to say,
"In this class of cases the Corpuscular Theory fails us, and we
must adopt the Wave Theory to fill the vacancy." The obvious
analogy of Natural Philosophy shows that if a theory fails in any
one case whatever, it fails in all.
In speaking of agricultural produce, Mill says — "There would be
little difficulty in finding other anomalous cases of Value, which it
might be a useful exercise to resolve."
He afterwards says — "This, then, is the Law of Value, with
respect to all commodities not susceptible of being multiplied at
pleasure. Such commodities are no doubt exceptions. There is
another Law (!) for that much larger class of things which admit
of indefinite multiplication. But it is not the less necessary to
conceive distinctly and grasp firmly the Theory of these exceptional
Cases (! !). In the first place it will be found to be of great assistance
in rendering the common case more intelligible. And in the next
place the principle of the exception stretches wider, and embraces
more cases than might at first be supposed."
Now this Law which Mill treats as accounting for this exceptional
case, by his own admission, governs the Value of labour — the
Rate of Discount — the Relation between Money and Credit — the
whole Foreign Trade of the country — and the value of all other
commodities at any particular time. He afterwards considers some
"peculiar cases" of Value. Now if, according to Mill, the whole
phenomena of Economics are made up of "Exceptional Cases,"
"Peculiar Cases," and "Anomalous Cases," what remains for the
general body of the science ? Absolutely nothing !
Ricardo and Mill break up Economic phenomena into a number
of distinct classes of cases, and they assert that for each distinct
class of phenomena there is a distinct Law of Value. Now, if
each class of Economic Quantities has a different Cause of Value,
how is it possible to have .any Fundamental General Conception ?
and if each distinct class of phenomena has a distinct Fundamental
Law of Value, how is it possible to have any General Theory of
Value? The method followed by Ricardo and Mill entirely
destroys the power of Generalising in Economics, and such a
mode of treating a Physical Science would drive any Physical
Philosopher frantic.
It is impossible to imagine a more glaring instance of the violation
of the Law of Continuity, and of the Continuity of Science, than
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Cii. III.] History of Economics 131
Mill's Theory of Foreign Trade. He says — "Does the Law that
permanent value is proportional to Cost of Production hold good
between commodities produced in distant places, as it does between
those produced in adjacent places? We shall find that it does not."
Again — " The value of commodities produced at the same place,
or in places sufficiently adjacent for capital to move freely between
them — let us say for simplicity, of commodities produced in the
same country — depends (temporary fluctuations apart) upon their
cost of production. But the value of a commodity brought from
a distant place, especially from a foreign country, does not depend
on its cost of production, or the place from whence it comes; on
what, then, does it depend? The value of a thing in any place
depends on the cost of its acquisition in that place, which, in the
case of an imported article, means the cost of production of the
thing which is expected to pay for it"
Now here is an obvious fundamental fallacy. Mill says that if
cotton goods to the value of ^50 are exported, and wine is imported
in exchange for them, which is worth ^100 in the importing country,
the value of the wine to that country is ^50 ! It is obvious that
this is to confound the Cost of a thing with its Value.
This is exactly as absurd as to say that if a man expends jQi on
producing an article which he can sell for £5, the Value of the
article to him is jQi !
Mill then says — "The value, then, in any country of a foreign
commodity depends on the quantify of home produce (!) which must
be given to the foreign country in exchange for it. In other words,
the values of foreign commodities depend on the terms of inter-
national exchange. What, then, do these depend upon ? What is
it which, in the case supposed, causes a pipe of wine from Spain to
be exchanged with England for exactly that quantity of cloth?
We have seen that it is not their cost of production. If the cloth
and the wine were both made in Spain, they would exchange at
their Cost of Production in Spain; if they were both made in
England they would exchange at the Cost of Production in England;
but all the cloth being made in England, and all the wine in Spain,
they are in circumstances to which we have already determined that
the Law of Cost of Production is not applicable. We must accord-
ingly, as we have done before in a similar embarrassment, fall back
upon an antecedent law, that of Supply and Demand, and in this we
shall again find the solution of our difficulty?
Mill's doctrine, therefore, is that in the exchange of commodities
between adjacent places, and in those of the same country, the
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132 On the Nature ami History of Economics [Bk. I.
law of Value is Cost of Production: but that in the exchange of
commodities between distant places and foreign countries, the law
of Value is that of Supply and Demand.
To examine this doctrine properly we must separate the cases ;
because distant places need not be foreign places; and foreign
places need not be distant places.
London and Melbourne are distant places, but they are not
foreign places : Lille and Ghent are foreign places, but they are not
distant places.
Mill affirms that the Law which governs the value of commodities
exchanged between adjacent places is fundamentally different from
the Law of Value of commodities exchanged between distant
places. He says that if commodities are exchanged between
London and Southwark their Value is governed by Cost of Pro-
duction ; but if they are exchanged between London and Melbourne
their Value is governed by Supply and Demand.
Now, if this doctrine be true, there must be some precise spot
between Southwark and Melbourne at which the law of Cost of
Production changes into that of Supply and Demand. Where is
this spot? Is it in the chops of the Channel? Is it at the
Equator ? Is it at the Cape of Good Hope ?
If Mill's doctrine is true, let us gradually and continuously
increase the distance between the adjacent places until they become
distant to each other ; and at this particular spot the Law of Cost
of Production suddenly and violently changes into that of Supply
and Demand. Let us suppose that a ship passes from one place
to the other; and that at a particular time the centre of the ship
is exactly at this spot ; then, according to. this doctrine, the Law of
Value in the stem of the ship will be that of Cost of Production ;
the Law of Value in the bows of the ship will be that of Supply
and Demand !
But Mill says that the Law of Value of commodities exchanged
in the same country is Cost of Production; of those exchanged
between foreign countries is that of Supply and Demand.
Now, London and Melbourne, and St. Petersburg and Kamschatka,
are in the same country ; therefore, according to Mill, the Law of
Value between them is that of Cost of Production.
But they are distant places; therefore, according to the same
Mill, the Law of Value between them is that of Supply and
Demand/
Lille and Ghent are adjacent places ; therefore, according to Mill,
the Law of Value between them is that of Cost of Production
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Ch. in.] History of Economics 1 33
But they are foreign places : and, therefore, according to the same
Mill, the Law of Value between them is that of Supply and
Demand/
Again, places that are at one time foreign to each other may, by
the union of the two countries, become of the same country,
England and Scotland were once foreign to each other : but by the
Union they became one country.
According to Mill, while they were foreign countries the Law of
Value between them was that of Supply and Demand : when they
became one country the Law of Value between them became that
of Cost of Production.
So that on the very day and instant at which the Act of Union
came into effect, the Law of Value between the two countries under-
went a sudden and fundamental change! Certainly this was an
effect of the Union which no one ever suspected before.
Until very recently Italy was divided into a number of separate
States, which were foreign to each other : and therefore the Value
x)f Commodities was governed by the Law of Supply and Demand.
Italy is now, happily, united and become one country: and con-
sequently Values are governed by the Law of Cost of Production !
That is to say, the unification of Italy has produced a fundamental
change in the Laws of Value ! It would be just as rational to say
that the unification of Italy has produced a fundamental change in
the Law of Gravity : or in the principles of Astronomy : or in the
laws of Optics.
The slightest consideration will show that such fantastic notions
cannot be received as sound philosophy.
Having thus shown the unphilosophical basis of Mill's " Theory
of International Values and International Trade, " we need not
examine them any more, nor his alleged " Equation of International
Demand" Such things cannot be fundamental Laws of Economics,
because it is a mere accident that countries are foreign to each other.
When countries coalesce and become one, what becomes of Inter-
national Values, and International Trade, and the Equation of
International Demand? They simply collapse and vanish into
nothing, and with them the Ricardo-Mill system of Economics.
It has long ago been observed that for the purpose of trade the
whole earth is one nation, and that the Laws of Value must be the
same in all places, in all times, and between all places, adjacent or
near, home or foreign.
Mill then in Book III., ch. vi., gives a summary of the Theory of
Value, in which he contends that there are seventeen Laws of Value,
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134 On the Nature and History of Economics [bk. i.
whereas the Laws of Natural Philosophy show that there can only be
one. He also says, "Happily there is nothing in the Laws of Value
which remains for the present, or any future writer, to clear up " !
Was there ever a more astounding instance of complacent self-
delusion ?
Now would such a mode of argument be tolerated in any other
Physical Science?
Taking Astronomy and Optics as typical examples of a Physical
Science, the purport of the science is to discover a single General
Theory which governs all the phenomena : and there can be only
one General Theory. It would be utterly contrary to the funda-
mental nature of a Physical Science to suppose that every distinct
class of phenomena was based upon a distinct fundamental Theory.
Both in Astronomy and Optics different fundamental Theories
have been held at various times : but no one ever supposed that
more than one theory could be true : no one ever dreamt of writing
a treatise on Astronomy in which one chapter was based upon
the Ptolemaic Theory : another chapter on the Theory of Tycho
Brahe : and another chapter on the Theory of Copernicus.
No one would ever dream of writing a Treatise on Optics in
which one class of phenomena were explained by the Corpuscular
Theory of Light : and another set of phenomena by the Undulatory
Theory.
(Jlf, then, Economics is a Physical Science, and to be treated after
the method of a Physical Science, it is the essential condition of
- its being so that all the phenomena in it should be reduced to
one grand General Theoryj Economics is simply a new order of
Variable Quantities: and consequently it must be subject to the
, Grand General Theory of Variable Quantities in general.
We have now shewn what a chaos of confusion and contradictions
Mill's notions are on the two fundamental concepts of Economics.
But these are merely specimens of his whole work. We need not
give any more examples here, but we have shown his confusion and
contradictions on Banking, Capital, Credit, Rate of Profit,
Rent, &c, under these respective articles.
Crhe fact is that Economics has burst the bonds of the Physiocrate
nomenclature. The fundamental concepts of the Economists were
N framed to include material products only ; and when Adam Smith,
Say, and Mill came and included in the science such things as
immaterial products and abstract rights, the definition became
\ unintelligible/} But the attempt was hopeless, and only led to
confusion. It was like putting new wine into old bottles; and
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 135
Bacon says it is idle to expect any great advancement in science
from superinducing and engrafting new things upon old. [We must
begin again from the very foundations. The fundamental concepts
of the Economists will no more fit the facts of nature than the
clothes of an infant will fit a full-grown man. We must have
concepts and axioms which include indifferently all the three orders
of Economic Quantities^} The works of Smith, Ricardo, Say, and
Mill are simple anarchy, and like those of the Economists have
passed away, and for the same reasons they are not general — they
are totally repugnant to the fundamental principles of Natural
Philosophy, and they are not conformable to nature.
Principiis tamen in rerum fecere ruinas
Et graviter magni magno cecidere ibi casu
Amplexi quod habent perverse prima viai
Re-action against the Economics of Jean Baptists Say and
John Stuart Mill.
FREDERIC BASTIAT.
For nearly half a century the Economics of J. B. Say reigned
supreme in France, and when J. S. Mill introduced it, though with
many divergences, into England in 1848, his work was saluted by his
friends and an uncritical public with unbounded applause, and was
supposed to have brought Economics to the highest state of perfec-
tion ; and for many years it was supposed that it was as futile to
criticize Mill as to criticize infallibility itself. Whatever Mill asserted
was to be accepted without doubt or profane questioning.
But soon after the publication of Mill's work a reaction began in
France, and has gone on increasing to the present time, and the
most advanced Economists throughout the world have come to see
that it is impossible to erect Economics into a positive and definite
Science on the system of Say and Mill, and that this can only be
done by reverting to the original conception of its founders — that it
is the Science of Commerce or Exchanges, or the Theory of
Value.
Frederic Bastiat, the brightest genius who ever adorned the science
of Economics, was born in 1801, the son of a merchant at Bayonne.
He was left an orphan at the age of nine, and was brought up under
the care of his grandfather, who had a small estate at Mugron, in
the department of the Landes. After being at college he was placed
in his uncle's house of business at Bayonne, in his 19th year. At
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136 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
first he thought that the business of a merchant was purely mechan-
ical, and could be picked up in a few months. But he was soon
disabused, and found that the science of commerce was not mere
routine, and that a merchant, besides his books and ledgers, ought
to study the Laws of Economics.
Having succeeded to his grandfather's property of Mugron, and
thereby having acquired a competence, he left commerce and devoted
himself to study. He read Adam Smith and J. B. Say, for whom
at that time he had a great admiration, and other Economists. He
also devoted much attention to English and Italian literature, as well
as philosophy. Thus, for several years his life passed away in deep
study and peaceful meditation, and filled some departmental offices.
Bastiat had written a few minor articles shewing great ability, and
containing many of the ideas he afterwards developed with such
surpassing brilliancy, which appeared in the provincial journals : but
it was in July, 1844, that his first article appeared in the Journal des
Economistes which announced to the world that a great Economical
writer had arisen.
We must pass over his inimitable Sophismes Economiques, also his
strenuous efforts, in company with Michel Chevalier, to found a
Free Trade league in France, in imitation of the Anti-Corn-Law
League in England, because all we have to do with in this place is
to ascertain what his views were of the nature and objects of the
science of Economics. He began, as said above, by having a great
admiration for J. B. Say, whose work was then the great standard
work on Economics in France, and held the same position there as
the Wealth of Nations did in England. But when he came to
declare his own views as to the nature and objects of Economics,
he entirely abandoned the system of J. B. Say, and reverted to the
original conception of it as the Science of Commerce or Exchanges,
or the Theory of Value.
In his Harmonies Economiques, under Besoins, Efforts, Satisfaction,
he investigates the true limits and objects of the science of
Economics. He determines that it is founded upon the wants of
mankind, and their reciprocal services ministered to their reciprocal
wants and desires.
" It is, in fact, this faculty given to man, and to man only, among
all creatures, to labour for each other: it is this transmission of
efforts, this exchange of services, with all their complicated and
infinite combinations to which it gives rise through time and space :
it is that precisely which constitutes Economic Science, shows its
origin, and determines its limits. . . .
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Ch. hi.] History of Economics 137
"To accomplish an effort, to satisfy the wants of another, is to
render him a service. If a service is stipulated in return, there is
an exchange of services: and as that is the most usual case,
Political Economy may be defined as the Theory of Exchange.
" Whatever may be the degree of want of one of the contracting
parties, or the intensity of the effort of the other, if the exchange is
free, the two services exchanged are of equal value. Value consists,
then, in the comparative appreciation of reciprocal services, and so
one may say that Political Economy is the Theory of Value."
In the article on Value, Bastiat investigates the conception of
Value, and shews that it is entirely founded on the mutual apprecia-
tion of services interchanged, and not upon labour.
" Thus the definition of the word Value, to be correct, should
regard not only human efforts, but also those efforts exchanged or
exchangeable. Exchange does more than state and measure values,
it gives them existence. I do not say that it gives existence to the
acts, or to the things which are exchanged, but it gives them the
notion of Value.
" I say, then, that Value is the relation of two services exchanged.
" The idea of Value entered into the world the first time that a
man said to his brother, 'Do this for me, and I will do that for you.'
They came to an agreement : for then, for the first time, one could
say the two services exchanged were equal in value.
"By means of exchange, we labour to provide food, clothing,
shelter, light, to heal, to defend, instruct each other: thence
reciprocal services. These services, we compare them, we discuss
them, we value them : thence Value. "
He shews that many circumstances affect Value, and points out
the false origins which have been attributed to the word.
" Up till now, the principle of Value has been sought for in one
of the circumstances which augment it or diminish it, materiality,
durability, utility, scarcity, labour, difficulty of acquisition, judg-
ment, &c. : a false direction impressed from the beginning on the
science, because the accident which modifies the phenomenon is
not the phenomenon. . . . Thus the principle of Value is for
Smith in materiality [Smith has admitted that both Personal
Qualities and Abstract Rights have Value] and durability, for Say
in utility, for Ricardo in labour, for Senior in scarcity, for Storch in
judgment, &c."
He then shows the confusion into which the science has been
thrown by these contradictory conceptions, and shews that the only
true source of Value is Exchangeability.
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138 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
The natural consequence of this view is that all services which
are exchanged are Economical elements, whatever their nature may
be, whether material or immaterial: and that all labour is productive
labour which produces any service which is wanted. Hence those
persons who satisfy any of our mental desires, such as opera-singers,
are included in that category. Bastiat then points out at great
length the erroneous conclusions to which the doctrines of pre-
ceding Economists on the conception of Value, lead.
DSo again in Organisation Naturelk he says : " We should shut
our eyes to the light if we refused to acknowledge that society
cannot present such complicated transactions, in which the civil
J J \ and penal laws have so little part, without obeying a wonderfully
ingenious mechanism. This Mechanism is the object <?/ Political
Economy."
Thus Bastiat entirely emancipated himself from the evil
influence of J. B. Sayjwhom he had admired so much at first
He plucked up by the roots the noxious fallacies which are the
Economics of Adam Smith and Ricardo, that all Wealth is the
produce of land and labour, and that labour is the cause of all
Value, which are the doctrines upon which the Socialists found
their systems.
He wrote a vast number of piquant and vivacious pamphlets
assailing Protection and Socialism, and other false doctrines of
Economics, then current. But unfortunately he did not live to
construct a definite system of Economics on the fundamental ideas
he had so lucidly expounded. After a short but brilliant career
of six years he was cut off in the maturity of his powers, and in
the very height of his reputation, in 1850.
IjJastiaj] has been called the founder of the third school of
Economics. But this is a misconception. [He simply cleared away
the stupendous chaos and confusion and mass of contradictions
of Adam Smith and J. B. Say, and reverted to the unanimous
doctrine of the ancients, of which he does not seem to have had
j ! any knowledge, that Exchangeability is the sole essence and
principle of Wealth : and that Value is not a quality inherent in
an object, but is simply the relation between any Economic
Quantities which are exchanged : and that Economics is the science
of Commerce or Exchanges, or the Theory of Value : a conclusion
in which the most advanced Economists in the world are now
agreed."]
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 139
The Author.
I had been interested in Economic subjects from my earliest
youth, but in 1854 I was compelled by circumstances to investigate
thoroughly the current works on Economics. At this time, nor for
several years afterwards, I had not read a line of the works, nor even
heard of the name, of Bastiat.
My father was Roderick MacLeod, of Cadboll and Invergordon
Castle, in the counties of Ross and Cromarty, Lord Lieutenant
of the county of Cromarty, and member of Parliament for the
county of Cromarty, the county of Sutherland, and the Inverness
district of Burghs. I was educated at Eton and Trinity College,
Cambridge, where I graduated in mathematical honours in 1843.
When I was a student at Cambridge, from 1839-43, the Anti-
Corn Law League was carrying on a vigorous campaign for the
repeal of the Corn Laws. As my father's property consisted
entirely in land, I naturally took an interest in these discussions,
and became an academical believer in Free Trade. But in 1842
I received an object lesson which made a deep impression on me.
In company with some friends I visited Manchester, which was
then in a state of the deepest distress, and the chief of the police
told us that an outbreak might take place at any moment. When
I saw the stunted, miserable, and woebegone appearance of the
working people, I was at once convinced that it was intolerable
that the necessary food of the toiling millions should be taxed for
the sole purpose of keeping up landlords' rents, and I then
became an uncompromising Free Trader.
My father having suffered severely in his health from his
attendance in Parliament, was ordered by his physician to reside
in a warm climate; and my elder brother serving in the navy, he
associated me in the management of his estates ; and, under the
tutelage of one of the wisest and best men I ever knew, I acquired
a knowledge of the management of a considerable amount of landed
property before I had ever heard of any theories on the subject,
and laid up a store of observations on the subject which were of
essential use to me afterwards, when I was obliged to investigate
the whole science of Economics.
In 1847 I commenced studying in the chambers of Mr. Edward
Bullen, one of the most able and accomplished lawyers of his day,
and the great master of the art of special pleading ; and, of course,
became thoroughly acquainted with Byles on Bills of Exchange,
which was then regarded as the standard authority on the subject.
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140 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. l
Although my father was ordered to reside in a warm climate,
he made periodical visits to Scotland. He made one of these in
1846, when a dissolution of Parliament was certain to take place
in the ensuing year. Although the largest agricultural proprietor
in the counties, he was a Liberal and an earnest Free Trader, and
most cordially approved of the repeal of the Corn Laws by Sir
Robert Peel. The counties were then represented by an ultra-
Protectionist. But Mr. (afterwards Sir) James Matheson, who had
left Sutherlandshire as a youth, and gone to the east, and had
become a member of the great China house of Jardine, Matheson,
and Co., had returned with a large fortune, and had purchased from
the Seaforth trustees the island of Lewes, formerly the possession
of the great Hebridean chief, MacLeod of the Lewes, and was
then member of Parliament for the borough of Ashburton, in
Devonshire. My father got up a requisition to Mr. Matheson to
stand for the counties upon Free Trade principles in opposition
to the Protectionist member. The constituency then numbered a
little over 700 electors. Of these, sixty were my father's tenants,
and they signed the requisition unanimously. Mr. Matheson had
seventy electors on his own property, and he acceded to the
requisition. When the general election came in 1847, this com-
bination was too powerful to be resisted. The Protectionist
member retired, and Mr. Matheson was returned without oppo-
sition. On this occasion I had the opportunity, as representing
my father, of making an earnest Free Trade speech in support of
Mr. Matheson on the hustings, and ever since then the counties
(now one) have been represented by a Free Trade member.
Very soon after this election I was called upon to undertake the
solution of an important Economical problem. Owing to the great
disruption of the Scottish Church, in 1843, tn« administration of
the Poor Law had fallen into utter confusion. Up to that time the
poor had been supported by the weekly contributions of the congre-
gation at church. But when the Free Church seceded, leaving
scarcely one per cent, in the Highlands in the Established Church,
their contributions were given to the support of their own ministers,
and it became necessary to levy rates for the support of the poor,
which had hitherto been almost unknown, at least, in the Highlands.
The Scottish Poor Law Amendment Act, 8 and 9 Vict. 1845,
c. 83, authorised levying rates for the relief of the poor. It also
authorised the building of poor -houses by single parishes, or by
combinations of parishes ; but it did not require them to be built, as
the English Poor Law did, nor did it enact that the offer of relief in
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€h. IIL] History of Economics 141
a poor-house should be an adequate offer of relief, so as to bar the
claim of a pauper to be relieved from the rates who had refused to
enter the poor-house.
The consequences of passing an Act to levy rates for the relief of
the poor, but at the same time instituting no test to prove the
applicants' necessities, were obvious. In a very short time the rates
rose from ^300 to ;£ 3000 ; and if an applicant was dissatisfied with
the allowance made to him, he raised an action in the Court of
Session. The prospect was most alarming, and the district in which
I resided, consisting of nine parishes, appointed a Committee to
consider what was to be done. This Committee elected me their
chairman, and entrusted me with the responsibility of devising a
more satisfactory system of Poor Law relief.
The question was, however, surrounded with considerable diffi^
culty. The old Poor Law of Scotland consisted of some old Acts
and Proclamations of the 16th and 17th centuries, which had never
been really enforced. Now, in Scotland, contrary to the case in
England, if Acts of Parliament fall into desuetude, and for a con-
siderable time cease to be worked, they cease to be valid. The old
Acts seemed to contain the powers I wanted, but the question was,
whether they could be so enforced at the present day so as to make
an offer of relief in the poor.house a valid tender of relief. I came
to the conclusion that they were still valid, and capable of being
enforced at the present day, and I drew up a Report, recommending
that the nine parishes should combine, and erect a common Poor-
house. This Report was adopted unanimously by the nine parishes.
The Poorhouse was built, and was perfectly successful. While the
poor rates had increased in every other district in the North of
Scotland, in Easter Ross alone they considerably diminished. This
was the first Poor Law Union in Scotland, and in 1852 the
Board of Supervision requested me to draw up a Report, to be pre-
sented to Parliament, so as to encourage other districts to form
similar Unions. My Report appeared in the Seventh Annual
Report of the Board of Supervision in 1852. The example set by
Easter Ross was speedily followed in other parts of the country, and
in a few years the whole of Scotland was formed into Poor Law
Unions.
All this time I had never read a line of any work on Economics,
though of course I knew that Adam Smith, Ricardo, and John
Stuart Mill had great reputations as Economists. But in 1854 I
was compelled to go thoroughly into the whole subject of
Economics.
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142 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
In that year I was invited to join the direction of a Joint Stock
Bank, which had been formed under Sir Robert PeePs Joint Stock
Banking Act of 1845. I had not the slightest knowledge of Bank-
ing, and never should have dreamt of seeking such a position, but
as it was offered to me, thinking that it would be of great advantage
to me in my profession to gain a practical insight into mercantile
business, I accepted the invitation. As soon as I joined the Board,
I was informed that they had a long-standing controversy with the
Board of Trade. All Banks by the Act had to be founded by
Charters from the Board of Trade. In granting the Charter, which
was prepared by the legal adviser of the Board of Trade, certain
clauses were inserted containing provisions for the future progress of
the Bank, which were essential to its existence, and if they had not
been granted, the Bank would never have been founded. When the
directors applied to the Board of Trade to grant the further powers
contained in these clauses, they were astonished by the Board of
Trade peremptorily refusing to do so, alleging that their legal
adviser, who had himself drawn them, declared that they were
illegal, and that the Crown had no power to act in accordance with
them. The directors placed their whole case before me, and I gave
it as my opinion that the clauses were perfectly legal, and I said that
I could draw such a case as would prove to the Board that they
were in error. The Board of Trade then said that if such a case
were drawn, they would refer it to the Law Officers of the Crown,
and would abide by their decision. I accordingly drew the case,
and it was submitted to Sir Alexander Cockburn and Sir Richard
Bethel, the then Law Officers of the Crown, and they at once gave
their decision in my favour.
It was this case which was the origin of the modem Science of
Economics.
As the points raised by the case were perfectly novel, I thought
that there might perhaps some light on them to be found in the
current books on Economics, and I then began, for the first time, to
study Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Mill I had not the slightest idea
what the Science of Economics was. I expected to find treatises
on a Science somewhat of the nature of those on Physical Science,
to which I was accustomed. Being perfectly familiar in practice
with all the subjects which these works treated about, I can hardly
express the disappointment I felt at reading them. It was true that
they had done immense services in clearing away old prejudices and
impediments to trade, but for the purpose of describing the actual
principles and mechanism of commerce they were absolutely worth-
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 143
less. They were merely a chaos of confusion and contradictions.
They were utterly unable to give any true scientific definitions, or if
they sometimes did hit upon a good definition, they were unable to
adhere to it They never made any attempt to give any exposition
of the actual facts of business, as treatises on science are bound to
do. They were in flat contradiction to themselves and to each other
on every single point. In fact, they were in no sense a science, but
the butchery of a science. I saw that the greatest opportunity that
had come to any man since the days of Galileo had come to me,
and I then determined to devote myself to the construction of a
real science of Economics on the model of the already established
physical sciences. Even then, from the study of these works, I
could discern from Adam Smith, Ricardo, and especially Whately,
that Economics is in reality the Science of Exchanges or of Com-
merce, or the Theory of Value.
I found that they had not the faintest idea of the juridical
principles and the mechanism of the great system of Mercantile
Credit, Banking, and the Foreign Exchanges.
One subject of supreme importance at that time demanded
thorough investigation — Commercial Crises and Monetary Panics.
Ever since 1793 the commercial world had been periodically
convulsed by Crises and Panics, but no one had succeeded in
demonstrating how they were to be brought under scientific control.
The Bank Act of 1844 had been supposed to have rendered them
impossible, but only three years after its enactment it completely
broke down, and had to be suspended to save the country from
general bankruptcy.
The first work I undertook was the Theory and Practice of
Banking, and I determined to bring the question which had so long
baffled financiers and statesmen to a final conclusion.
I investigated the history of Banking from its origin in this
country. I carefully studied the principles by which the Bank of
England had been managed from its institution, and especially
since the great monetary panic of 1793. I carefully studied the
great Bullion Report of 181 1, all other parliamentary reports upon
banking, and all the debates in Parliament.
Ever since 1800 the Bank has been managed on a succession of
theories, each one of which was regarded as the acme of wisdom in
its own day, and was condemned as the ne plus ultra of folly by the
next generation. The extravagant issues of paper money by the
Bank, in pursuance of their theory of 1800, had caused a serious
depreciation of the Bank Note and an export of gold, so that there
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144 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
was scarcely any gold left in circulation. This gave rise to the
Bullion Committee, who showed that there were two causes of an
export of gold; (i) an adverse balance of trade, and (2) depreciated
paper money. Proposals were made to impose a limit on the
power of the Bank to issue Notes; but the Bullion Report ex-
pressly condemned any such limitation for reasons fully stated in
my Theory and Practice of Banking, and Theory of Credit: and all
Banking authorities concurred in this opinion. Sir Robert Peel, in
1 81 9, said that there never would come a time when he would
assent to such a limitation. The Bullion Report laid down that
the Bank should regulate its issues of paper by the market, or
paper, price of bullion and the state of the Foreign Exchanges.
But they omitted to state how this was to be done. For some
time the Bank repudiated these doctrines, but ultimately adopted
them, and endeavoured to frame a theory to carry them out. But
yet Commercial Crises and Monetary Panics continued to recur.
At last, in 1844, Sir Robert Peel undertook to frame an Act which
should automatically compel the Bank to conform to the doctrines
of the Bullion Report, under the guidance of Lord Overstone,
Colonel Torrens, and others. Sir Robert Peel adopted the theory
that all Commercial Crises and Monetary Panics were due to
excessive issues of Bank Notes, and that if he could provide
against that, Commercial Crises and Monetary Panics would be
prevented from occurring. The Act was founded on a nest of
theories. (1) That only Coin and Bank Notes payable to bearer
on demand are currency, to the exclusion of Cheques, Bills of
Exchange, and all other forms of credit. (2) That if Bank Notes
are permitted to be issued, they ought to be exactly equal to what
the coin would be if there were no Bank Notes. The Bank of
England was reconstituted in such a way that it was supposed that
beyond a certain fixed amount, Bank Notes could only be issued in
exchange for gold paid in, and that if gold was drawn out an equal
amount of Bank Notes must be cancelled. The framers of the
Act supposed that gold could only be drawn out of the Banks
by means of Notes. Then came the crisis of 1847, and to the
astonishment of everyone, gold continued to ebb away from the
Bank, end not a single Note was withdrawn from circulation ! On
the contrary, while the gold continued to diminish, the Notes
rather increased. The wonderful wiseacres who concocted the
Bank Act had quite forgotten the fact that gold may be drawn out
from the Bank &y means of Cheques as well as Notes!
My experience in banking had brought to my knowledge a fact
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Ch. III.] History of Economics I45
which, as far as I am aware, has never been stated in any book ; it
was never mentioned in evidence before any Committee nor in the
debates in Parliament It was this: "That when the Rate of
Discount in two markets differs by more than sufficient to defray the
cost of sending bullion from one to the other, bullion flows from the
market where discount is lower to where it is higher"
The fact is that when two markets are in such a position, Bullion
dealers fabricate Bills for the express purpose of having them
discounted by the Bank. When the bills are discounted, the
Bullion dealers obtain a Deposit, a Credit, in the Bank, and they
immediately draw out the gold by means of Cheques, and not by
Notes. Thus every ounce of gold may be drawn out of the Bank,
and not a single Note withdrawn from circulation, as all but
happened in 1857. Thus 1 added a third cause of the export
of gold, to the two mentioned in the Bullion Report Thus I laid
down this principle :
The true supreme power of controlling Credit and Paper Currency
is by adjusting the Rate of Discount by the bullion in the Bank, and
by the state of the Foreign Exchanges.
The truth of this principle is now universally recognised, and
every Bank is now governed by it
One day at the Political Economy club, Sir John Lubbock
observed to me that this was the greatest discovery of the age.
This principle completes the Theory of the Bullion Report, and
the theory of Credit and Paper Currency is now complete.
I next determined to investigate the history of Economics so as
to arrive at a definite conclusion as to the nature and purpose of
the science.
I found that Adam Smith was not the founder and creator of
Economics and Free Trade, as was so commonly supposed in this
country, but that it was first founded as a definite science by the
sect of the Economists in France about 1750, and that they expressly
declared that it is the science of Exchanges, or of Commerce, or
the Theory of Value, as detailed above. The Economists, however,
in an unhappy moment, devised an alternative and equivalent
definition of the science as that of the "Production, Distribution,
and Consumption of Wealth" I have shown above how these two
apparently conflicting ideas are to be reconciled. Then I found
that J. B. Say, seizing upon this unfortunate alternative definition,
and quite perverting the meaning of its terms, in which he had been
followed by Mill in a general way, had quite ruined Economics as a
science. I then saw that it was necessary to reject entirely the
L
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146 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
system of Say and Mill as a science, though containing many good
ideas. I saw that Economics can only be made a definite and
positive science by reverting to the concept of its founders as the
science of Exchanges.
In 1857 I published my Elements of Political Economy \ in which
Economics was, for the first time, exhibited as the science of
Exchanges, and gave the details of business, and not mere abstract
principles. This was the first work in Economics which gave an
exposition of the mechanism of Credit, Mercantile, Banking, and
the Foreign Exchanges. A very grave defect I observed in the
current works on Economics was that they gave very insufficient
attention to the Theory of Money. I gave in it for the first time a
sketch of the history of the Currency in England, and in the
investigation of this I came upon the great law which Sir Thomas
Gresham explained to Queen Elizabeth, that good money and bad
money cannot circulate together in a country, but that the bad
money drives out the good money, and alone remains in circulation.
I saw at once the great importance of this law, and I suggested that
it should be called "Gresham's Law/9 This has now been
universally accepted, and it is known throughout the world. It is a
law of supreme importance, and has been found to be true in all
ages and countries.
Further, I adopted Lord Lauderdale's Law of Value as the great
Law of Value, or the general Equation of Economics, and showed
that it governed all the phenomena of Value, and that there are not
a multitude of Laws of Value, according to Smith, Ricardo, and
Mill. Thus for the first time there was a treatise on Economics,
framed on the model of the standard works on physical science.
M. Michel Chevalier was then by far the most distinguished
professor of Political Economy in Europe, and I sent him a copy of
the work, with the request that he would examine it. In answer to
this he sent me the warmest approval of my work, and continued a
steadfast adherent of mine ever after.
The more I read of Economics the more confusion and con-
tradictions I found, and I said in my Bankings " The time has come
when all Political Economy must be re-written"
Though I carefully read the French Economists from the time of
the Physiocrates, I found that I had far from come to the bottom of
the subject. I therefore prosecuted the search for two thousand
years, and at last, in the writings of the ancients, I reached a firm
and sure foundation.
The ancients unanimously held that Exchangeability is the
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 147
sole essence and principle of Wealth, and that every thing whatever
which can be bought and sold or exchanged is Wealth, no matter
what its nature or form may be. Thus the doubts and difficulties
and discussions of centuries were solved at once.
Aristotle says, "By the term Wealth we mean all things whose
Value can be measured in Money." A dialogue, termed the
Eryxias, showed that Labour is Wealth because it is exchangeable, it
can be bought and sold, its value can be measured in money.
Demosthenes showed that Credit is Wealth and Capital. At this
time I had not studied Roman Law, but every lawyer and man
of business knows that a vast variety of Rights and Rights of
Action can be bought and sold or exchanged, and their value can be
measured in money, and they are called in law Incorporeal Wealth.
Afterwards, when I came to study Roman Law, I found that it is
expressly laid down in the Pandects that Rights and Rights of
action are included under the terms JPccunia, Bona, Res, Merx, as
they are in every system of jurisprudence.
Thus the ancients held unanimously that anything is Wealth
where and when it can be exchanged or bought and sold; that
where and when a thing cannot be exchanged or bought and sold it
is not Wealth.
This definition is clear, simple, and decisive, and clears away
mountains of futile discussion by ill-informed writers, and it is the
true foundation of the whole science.
I found that the only way to deliver Economics from the unin-
telligible tangle into which it had fallen at the hands of ill-informed
writers, and to place it on a strictly scientific basis, was (1) to
institute a thorough investigation into its history and the different
concepts of its nature and purpose which had been held at different
times; and (2) to investigate thoroughly its fundamental concepts
and axioms by means of a separate article given to each, examining
the contradictory and imperfect doctrines which had been held, and
subjecting each of these to the established laws of Inductive
Philosophy.
Such was the object and purpose of my Dictionary of Political
Economy. Its plan was —
(1) To collect as complete a catalogue as possible of writers on
Economics and their works.
(2) To give a biographical sketch of the principal writers, and a
full analysis of their works.
(3) A separate article on each of the fundamental concepts and
axioms of the science, tracing its history, and the various contra-
il 2
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148 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
dictions and confusion of different writers, and coining to a final
conclusion on each according to the recognised laws of Inductive
Philosophy, so as to be, in fact, a complete Encyclopaedia on the
subject
Accordingly, besides the catalogue and notices of minor writers,
I have given biographies of J. Q. Adams, ^Eschines Socraticus,
Anderson, Aristotle, Bailey, Bastiat, Baudeau, Beccaria, Bentham,
Bodin, Boisguillebert, Burke, Burton, Calonne, Calvin, Carey,
Chadwick, Chalmers, Chevalier, Cobden, Colbert, Condillac,
Condorcet, with a full analysis of their writings on Economics.
It was in writing the biography of Bastiat that I first came across
his name and became acquainted with his writings. I cannot
express the delight I felt in reading his vivid and brilliant works, so
different from the muggy works in common use. I was delighted to
find that his ideas in Economics were exactly the same as my own,
and I was so surprised to find so many coincidences on the
fundamental concepts of Economics with my own, that I was
obliged, in case people might think that I had conveyed Bastiat's
ideas without acknowledgment, to state that though my Banking
was published in 1855, and my Elements of Political Economy in
1857, that I had no knowledge of his works till May, 1859. I read
through the whole of Bastiat's works, and wrote the article for my
Dictionary in eight days, and I was much gratified to be told by
M. Paillotet, his lifelong friend and admirer, and literary executor,
that he had derived from my article a much clearer idea of the
nature of Bastiat's doctrines than from the constant study of them
by himself.
I also gave separate treatises on Absenteeism, Annuities, Assig-
nats, Ateliers Nationaux, Axioms and Definitions, Balance of
Trade, Bank, History of Banking in England, Scotland, Ireland,
America, France, Italy, Rome, China, Holland, Bank Note, Bill of
Exchange, Bill of Lading, Bullion Report, Capital, Cash Credit,
Cheque, Circulating Medium, Circulation, Clearing House, Coinage,
History of the Coinage of Greece, Rome, Great Britain, France,
Decimal Coinage, Consilience of Inductions, Consumption, Law of
Continuity, Copyright, Cost of Production, Credit, Credit Fonder,
Commercial Crisis, Currency.
In my article on Axioms and Definitions, and other articles on
Inductive Logic, I showed that the Ricardo-Mill system of
Economics is in direct violation of all the fundamental laws and
principles of Inductive Philosophy.
In my Banking and Elements of Political Economy, I had for the
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 149
first time given an exposition of the actual mechanism of the system
of Credit, but upon reflection I found it necessary to go much more
deeply into the subject I investigated the fundamental concepts
of the Theory of Credit, and explained its juridical principles and
their applications in practical business. Furthermore, I remembered
that mathematicians had, for a long time, termed Debts Negative
Quantities, but only two mathematicians, Euler and Peacock, bad
attempted to explain the application of the Theory of the Alge-
braical Signs to the Theory of Credits and Debts. But I found
their attempts to be a mass of confusion and errors, from their want
of knowledge of Mercantile Law and practical business. Their
explanation violated five distinct branches of science. I then
explained the real application of the Theory of Algebraical Signs
to the Theory of Credit and Debt.
At this time I had never studied Roman Law; but in 1868 I, for
the first time, made myself acquainted with it, and to my surprise
and delight I found that every word that I had said in my article on
Credit was given in the Pandects 1300 years ago. Consequently,
in the subsequent editions of my works, I introduced the whole
Roman Law on Credit and Debt bodily. I also found that I had
brought the subject to a more complete state than it was in the
Pandects, because the Romans knew nothing of the Theory of
Algebraical Signs, which has, indeed, only been fully understood by
mathematicians themselves within the last sixty years.
The first volume of my Dictionary was published in 1863 ; it was
received with the warmest approval by the most distinguished
foreign Economists, but, of course, the devotees of John Stuart
Mill utterly ignored it I wrote every word of it myself, and
published it at my own expense, but it scarcely paid its expenses,
and I did not think it advisable to continue such thankless work.
In 1862 M. Michel Chevalier presented a Report to the Academy
of Moral Sciences of the Institute of France, in which he declared
his entire cohesion to my system of Economics. This Report was
published in the Journal des Economises for August.
In 1862 the meeting of the British Association for the Advance-
ment of Science was held at Cambridge. I was Secretary to the
Economic section, and I thought it a favourable opportunity to
bring forward an account of the new system of Economics, which
had been so favourably received by the most distinguished foreign
Economists, to the notice of the meeting, and to draw their atten-
tion to the existence of Negative Economic Quantities.
In 1863 I completed the first volume of my Dictionary of Political
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I JO On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
Economy. Immediately it came to the notice of M. Rouher, one of
the most distinguished advocates and Economists in France, then
Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, he caused an account of
my system of Economics to be drawn up by M. Richelot, one of
the chiefs of departments in his Ministry, under the title of Une
Revolution en Economic Politique : exposk des doctrines de Af. MacLeod,,
which he directed to be distributed to all the Chambers of Com-
merce in France. This work recognized that I had made a complete
revolution in Economics.
M. Jules Duval, a distinguished advocate and Editor of the
Economiste Eranfais, acknowledged that my Dictionary was superior
to the French Dictionary, which was the work of 38 French
Economists, and said that I ought to be recognised as one of the
fathers of Economics, because I had introduced Negative Quanti-
ties into Economics, perfectly analogous to Negative Quantities in
mathematics and physical science.
In 1867 the Government appointed a Royal Commission to pre-
pare a Digest of the Law in anticipation of the fusion of Law and
Equity then contemplated. They selected three branches of the
Law to commence with, as specimens of the Digest of the whole
Law. One of the subjects selected was Bills of Exchange, Bank
Notes, &c. And they invited members of the Bar to compete to
prepare these Digests under their supervision. Having studied
Mercantile Law under so able a master as Mr. Bullen, I was well
acquainted with the doctrines on Credit then currently held by the
Courts of Law ; but I was also conversant with practical commerce,
and I had long seen how narrow and unfit these doctrines were for
the requirements of modern commerce. I held them to be merely
survivals of mediaeval ignorance and barbarism, and longed for the
day when the Courts would adopt a more enlightened system. But
as they were held by all the Judges, and laid down in all text books,
I never made any effort to ascertain whether they were really true or
not, as I naturally concluded that the Judges knew their own law.
Moreover, it would have been utterly useless for an obscure person
like myself to attempt to overthrow the doctrines held by all the
Judges.
At last, however, I found that my opportunity had come. In
preparing my competition paper, I investigated the history of these
obnoxious doctrines, and I found, to my intense delight, that they
were a pure delusion and hallucination, and had no solid foundation.
I found an unbroken series of decisions of the Courts of Law for
550 years in direct contradiction of the doctrines then held by the
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 1 5 1
Courts, and that doctrines which were supposed to be the very
corner-stone of the Common Law, had no existence before 1800,
and were the result of a single case decided by a narrow-minded,
ignorant, and bigoted Judge, in direct contradiction to the unani-
mous decisions of the Courts for 550 years !
In the course of preparing this competition paper, my attention
was, for the first time, drawn to the Pandects of Justinian, and I
then found that the Juridical principles of Credit which I had set
forth in the article " Credit " in my Dictionary of Political Economy ',
were contained word for word at full length in the Pandects, and
had been the Mercantile Law of Europe for 1600 years !
Upon considering all the competition papers, the Commissioners
unanimously selected me to prepare the Digest of the Law of Bills
of Exchange, &c. Judges and Courts of Law only declare their
opinion of what the Law is, but I was instructed by the Com-
missioners to declare " the Law " upon all points. It would not be
suitable to enlarge further on this subject here, which I have done
elsewhere. But the Commissioners gave their approval on the
points in which I had impugned the current doctrines. I was
assiduously engaged on this great work for one year and nine
months, when Mr. Lowe, who was one of the Commissioners, and
had become Chancellor of the Exchequer, put a summary stop to
the whole work, and thus my Digest was never published under the
authority of the Commissioners, but they and many other Judges
gave me testimonials of the highest character for the work I had
done.
In 1872 I published a new and greatly augmented edition of my
Elements of Political Economy, under the title of " The Principles of
Economical Philosophy? in which I investigated all the fundamental
concepts of Economics, and traced its history for 2000 years. I
introduced into it the new doctrines of Credit, which had received
the approval of the Law Digest Commissioners ; and as they were
novel and startling to literary Economists, I appended the testi-
monials I had received from the Commissioners and Judges, so that
my readers might have confidence in them.
I dedicated this work to M. Michel Chevalier, in acknow-
ledgment of the uniform support I had received from him ; and
when the work was completed, he wrote to me, " It is your work
which serves me as the guide for the philosophy of all my teaching
at the College de France." M. Chevalier proposed me as a foreign
member of the Academy of Moral Sciences of the Institute of
France, but he died before this could be effected.
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152 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
In 1873 a case involving the doctrines on Credit I had established
came before the Court of Queen's Bench, and the judgment of the
Court delivered by Mr. Justice (afterwards Lord) Blackburn re-
asserted in the strongest terms all the old doctrines which I had
successfully impugned before the Law Digest Commissioners.
But in 1875 the very same doctrines were brought before the
Court of Exchequer Chamber in the case of Goodwin z>. Robarts,
the greatest Mercantile case that ever came before the Courts, and
the Court, consisting of Lord Chief Justice Cockburn, Lord Justice
Lush, Lord Esher, and Lord Justice Lindley, who had my com-
petition paper before them, unanimously decided that I was right in
every particular, and that the Court of Queen's Bench was wrong in
every particular, and did me the very high and unprecedented
honour to recommend that my doctrines should be put in a form
adapted for popular circulation, which I had already done in my
Principles of Economical Philosophy ', and have done so in other
works.
Thus these doctrines were then established as Law by the
Court next in jurisdiction to the House of Lords: and by the
Supreme Court of Judicature Act, which came into operation in
1875, they were enacted by Statute: and so they are now actually
the Law. These doctrines are set forth in the articles Credit and
Debt, so that readers may have implicit confidence in them.
In 1878 six great London Joint Stock Banks invited me to give a
course of lectures on Credit and Banking at King's College, and in
1882, at the request of the Council of the Institute of Bankers in
Scotland, I delivered a similar course at Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
These lectures were attended by upwards of 700 members of Banks
in England and Scotland, and I showed them that all the common
notions about Banking were utterly erroneous, and satisfied them
that the principles and mechanism of Banking set forth in my
works were entirely correct
In 1 88 1 and following years, I published a new edition of my
Principles of Economical Philosophy \ greatly condensed and simpli-
fied under the name of "Elements of Economics? Knowing by
experience, and by the work I did for the Law Digest Commission,
how utterly inadequate the training of students of Law was in
Mercantile Law and practical business, and the numbers of cases
I had to set aside for want of this knowledge, I brought the matter
before Lord Justice Bowen, who had for many years been a firm and
constant friend to me, and Mr. Justice Stephen, who gave his
warmest approval to my works, two members of the Council of
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 153
Legal Education, and they proposed that my Elements of Economics
should be adopted for the training of students of Law, as this work
contained the only exposition of the Juridical principles of Credit
which are now Law, combined with their practical application in the
business of Mercantile Credit, Banking, and the Foreign Exchanges:
but the Council did not see the necessity of it.
The recent fall in the value of silver is alleged to have produced
many commercial inconveniences, and in every country powerful
parties have been formed to endeavour to procure an international
agreement to coin gold and silver in unlimited quantities at a fixed
ratio, and to make them unlimited tender at the option of the
Debtor. This scheme its advocates term Bimetalism, and they
imagine that it would cure all evils. But in this they are wholly
mistaken. It is only a recrudescence of the ignorant and barbarous
Economics of the fourteenth century. Every nation in Europe had
attempted to maintain Bimetalism for five hundred years, and it
was everywhere a hopeless failure. In my Elements of Political
Economy, and Dictionary of Political Economy, I had briefly stated
the reason why it had been found necessary to abandon Bimetalism,
and adopt Monometalism, but I did not go very deeply into the
subject, as no one expected that Bimetalism would ever be revived
any more than the Ptolemaic astronomy.
But the agitation instituted by the Bimetalists and their un-
answered assertions had produced considerable effect in the public
mind; and, as very few persons knew the real reasons why the
present system of Monometalism was established, I thought it
expedient to investigate the matter fully, so that the public might
understand it. This I did in my Bimetalism, In this work I gave
a succinct but sufficiently full account of the attempts to maintain
it for five hundred years, and the unanimous arguments of a series
of illustrious men during the same period to show its impossibility,
and how the government of every country in succession has been
compelled to abandon it. I also showed that it is a vain delusion
to suppose that nations can, by international agreement, maintain a
fixed ratio between gold and silver coined in unlimited quantities.
This work has been very successful.
9
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154 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
ARTHUR LATHAM PERRY.
A few years after I had published my Elements of Political
Economy, a very distinguished and popular Professor in Williams
College, Massachusetts, Arthur Latham Perry, published a work
under the same name. For ten or twelve years he had been
retailing the usual doctrines of Smith, Ricardo, Senior, and MilL
But he grew more and more dissatisfied with them from the lack of
scientific generality common to them, and could see no reason why
Economical discussions should be confined to tangible commo-
dities, and not include also personal services rendered for pay, and
also credit of all kinds, and he was already coming to the conclusion
that Economics was the Science of Exchanges, or of Value, when
Bastiat's Harmonies Economises fell in his way. He had only read
a few pages of it when the whole subject was cleared up to him,
and since then Economics became a new science to him. This was
in 1863. He then became a complete convert to the doctrine that
Economics is the Science of Exchanges, or the Theory of Value,
In process of time he published his Elements of Political Economy.
Professor Perry begins his work — "Political Economy is the
Science of Exchanges ; or, what means just the same, the Science of
Valuer
In his sketch of the History of the Science he points out the
strange confusion and contradictions of Smith on the meaning of
Wealth, the fundamental concept of the science, and observes that
he at last comes to Exchangeability as the sole essence of Wealth.
He then notices the confusion and contradictions of Mill on the
same word, and shows that a science cannot be founded on such
contradictory foundations, and that their works are now superseded
by those of what is called the Third School of Economics, of which
Bastiat is the most conspicuous writer in recent times. He then
points out that Say's work is infected with the fundamental error of
confusing Value with Utility, as we have shown above.
Professor Perry then notices the author, and says : " His books
have already changed, and cannot fail in the end to change greatly,
the economic opinions of his countrymen. Till now, however, his
views have found a readier acceptance in France and the United
States than at home. His definition of the science is the one
enforced in these pages also, namely, the Science of Exchanges.
This definition is drawing to itself the most recent investigators in
France, England, and America ; and the scientific development of it
has already put Political Economy into a new and better posture."
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 155
In considering the field of the science, Professor Perry says — " If
Political Economy be the science of Exchanges, it must include in
its scientific view all things whatsoever that are economically ex-
changed. Exchangeability will be the quality that constitutes the
class of things with which the science is conversant There is such
a class of things, and accordingly it possesses the first grand condi-
tions of a science." And he shows that the failure of Smith and
Mill to construct a science of Political Economy, is due to their
confusion and contradictions on the fundamental concept of the
science.
Professor Perry then points out that Ethics has nothing to do
with Economics — " This idea of obligation on which the science of
Morals is founded, and the idea of Value, on which the science of
Economy is founded, are totally distinct ideas ... as a science it
has no concern with questions of moral right . . . The grounds
of Economy and Morals are independent and incommensurable
. . . We locate the field of the science just where Whateley places
it [as was the universal idea before Say] — ' Catallactics ; or, the
science of Exchanges ' ; just where the German Kiehl puts it — c Die
lehre von den Werthen ' — the doctrine of Value ; and just where
MacLeod places it — 'This definition, the science of Exchanges, or
its precise equivalent, the science of Value, gives a perfectly definite
field to Political Economy. Wherever Value goes this science goes,
and where Value stops it stops. Political Economy is the science
of Value, and nothing else.' "
Professor Perry having thus defined the field of the science, pro-
ceeds to Value. He shows, in agreement with all ancient writers,
and all the Italian Economists and others, that all Value originates
in human wants and desires. He entirely rejects Labour and Utility
as the cause of Value, and says — " It is this reciprocal estimation
(or Demand) alone that constitutes Value," remarking that there are
four elements on each side which produce any change in value.
That is, that the general equation of value contains eight indepen-
dent variables. He says that Economics is full to a surfeit of the
theoretical errors and practical blunders which have come from con-
founding Value with Utility.
Professor Perry is in agreement with me on all points with the
exception of a few trifling dissidences. His work is an excellent
outline of Economics.
Mr. Walter Bagehot, in his various works, repeatedly said that
Political Economy is the Theory of Business.
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156 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
STANLEY JEVONS.
We must now notice a writer whose work has attracted consider-
able attention.
I may remark, in the first place, that Jevons has adopted the
name of Economics for the science, which I suggested instead of
the clumsy name of Political Economy.
Jevons is a strenuous and zealous asserter of the doctrine that
Economics is essentially a mathematical science.
" It is clear that Economics, if it is to be a science, must be a
mathematical science.
"To me it seems that our science must be mathematical simply
because it deals with quantities.
" Wherever the things treated are capable of being greater or less,
there the laws and relations must be mathematical in nature. The
ordinary laws of supply and demand treat entirely of quantities of
commodity demanded and supplied, and express the manner in
which the quantities vary in connection with the price. In con-
sequence of this fact, the laws are mathematical. Economists
cannot alter their nature by denying them the name. Whether the
mathematical laws of Economics are stated in words, or in the usual
symbols x, y, z, p, q> &c, is an accident, or a matter of mere con-
venience."
"If in Economics we have to deal with quantities and com-
plicated relations of quantities, we must reason mathematically;
we do not render the science less mathematical by avoiding the
symbols of algebra — we merely refuse to employ in a very important
science, much needing every kind of assistance, that apparatus of
appropriate signs which is found indispensable in other sciences."
And he pursues this argument at great length, and with admirable
and undeniable illustrations, to which I give my entire assent.
In his preface he says — "The conclusion to which I am ever
more clearly coming is that the only hope of attaining a true system
of Economics is to fling aside once and for ever the mazy and
preposterous assumptions of the Ricardian school. Our English
Economists have been living in a fool's paradise."
"When at length a true system of Economics comes to be
established, it will be seen that that able but wrong-headed man
David Ricardo shunted the car of Economic Science on a wrong
line, a line on which, however, it was further urged towards
confusion by his equally able and wrong-headed admirer John
Stuart Mill ... It will be a work of labour to pick up the
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CH..IIL] History of Economics 157
fragments of a shattered science, and to start anew, but it is a work
from which they must not shrink who wish to see any advance in
Economic Science."
To these remarks I give my heartiest assent, and it is the very
work upon which I have been assiduously engaged for more than
forty years.
Jevons entirely accepts my Theory of Negative Values —
"Readers of Mr. MacLeod's works are, of course, familiar with
the idea of Negative Value : but it was desirable for me to show
how important it really is, and how naturally it falls in with the
principles of the Theory."
Jevons says — "I may here remark that all the writings of Mr.
Henry Dunning MacLeod exhibit a strong tendency to mathe-
matical treatment ... It is not my business to criticize his
ingenious views, or to determine how far he has really created a
mathematical system." Jevons's hesitancy to accept my system
only arose from his want of knowledge of Jurisprudence and
practical business. The most distinguished French Economists,
Michel Chevalier, Rouher, and Jules Duval accepted and adopted
it at once, and numbers of other persons have done so since.
Before I come to examine Jevons's application of mathematics to
Economics, I may observe that in consequence of his ignorance of
jurisprudence and practical business, there are large portions of
Economics which are essentially mathematical, which have entirely
escaped his notice. Thus he has failed to observe that the current
works on Economics have entirely omitted, with a few exceptions,
that colossal mass of property which is termed in law Incorporeal
Wealth, amounting at the present time to scores of thousands of
millions of valuable property. I have shown that every sum of
money is equivalent not only to a certain quantity of material
commodities or labour, but also to the sum of the present values of an
infinite series of future payments ', or to an Annuity, And these
annuities are Negative Economic Quantities, exactly analogous to
Negative Quantities in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. By
bringing all these various forms of annuity into Economics, I have
doubled the extent of Economics, just as those did who introduced
Negative Quantities into Mathematics and Natural Philosophy.
Again, mathematicians have ever since the days of Maclaurin
termed Debts Negative Quantities, though they never could give
any satisfactory explanation of the term, from their want of know-
ledge of jurisprudence. Continental Jurists also term debts
Negative Quantities, and have clearly explained their meaning.
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158 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
But Jevons had not the least idea of this. He had not the least
idea of applying the Theory of Algebraical Signs to the exposition
of the theory of mercantile credit and banking, by which they are
brought under the strictest mathematical demonstration. If he had
done so, he never would have conceived his Bedlamite craze that
Commercial Crises and Monetary Panics are due to spots on the
sun's disc and conjunctions of the planets ! Commercial crises and
monetary panics are due to abuses of the system of Credit, bad
Banking, and bad Banking legislation.
Jevons no sooner starts upon the exposition of his system than he
runs upon a fatal rock, and founders. He says : " Repeated
reflection and inquiry have led me to the somewhat novel opinion
that Value depends entirely on Utility" Now this is by no means a
novel opinion. Say, while rejecting Labour as the basis of Value,
has made Utility the basis of his system of Value, and many other
French writers have done the same. But every sound Economist
has seen that Utility cannot be made the basis of Value (Value).
I have shown this above in discussing Say. Who can compare the
Utility of a bottle of champagne, price 10s., and the Utility of a
work on science or literature, also price 10s. ? Aristotle and all the
ancients showed that value depends upon Xf*"h Demand, human
wants and desires. The Italian Economists are unanimous on this
point The Economists expressly declared that they had nothing to
do with Value in use, but only with Value in Exchange. Aristotle
says that Value is the relation between one object and others. Value
is an affection of the mind, and not a quality of an object. It is the
Desire of the mind towards something external ; either to acquire it,
which is Positive Value, or to get rid of it, which is Negative
Value. When Value or Desire proceeds another step, and gives
something to obtain its desire, it becomes Demand. And all
phenomena of Value or Exchanges arise from Reciprocal
Demand. Things are only equal in value when persons desire
them equally, and are willing to give the same sum to acquire
them.
Just before the preceding sentence we havefquoted from Jevons,
he says — " As almost every Economical writer has remarked, it is in
treating the simple elements that we require the most care and pre-
cision, since the least error of conception must vitiate all our
deductions." This sentence is most true, and seals the condemna-
tion of Jevons's whole workTj We can at once see that all Jevons's
superstructure must fall in ruins, because it is founded on a radically
false concept.
Digitized by
google
Ch. III.] History of Economics 159
(jevons abandons the plain and intelligible designation of Eco-
nomics as the Science of Exchanges or of Value, or the Theory of
Business, and adopts the fantastic title of the Calculus of Pleasure
and Pain, and says that it is the mechanics of utility and self interest^
"Pleasure and pain are undoubtedly the ultimate objects of the
Calculus of Economics. To satisfy our wants to the utmost with the
least effort — to procure the greatest amount of what is desirable at
the expense of the least that is undesirable — in other words to
maximise pleasure^ is the problem of Economics." [All this is mere ¥
moonshine. Economics is simply the science which treats of " the
principles and mechanism of universal commerce. 'U
It is quite impossible to enter into the weary waste of mathematics
which Jevons has introduced into the Theory of Utility and of Ex-
change, because, as they are based upon a radically false concept,
they are utterly worthless; and even if they were true, they are
utterly useless. Instead of restricting himself to the statement of a
general law in simple words, which would be essentially mathe-
matical, he dazes us with a flood of Differential Equations ! I told
him that if such methods were, to be adopted, it would be necessary
for the steersman, every time he shifted the helm to alter the course
of his vessel, to solve a Differential Equation, to find out how much
he ought to shift it to produce the required effect; or for the
directors of the Bank of England, every time they raised or lowered
the rate of discount to solve a Differential Equation, to determine
how much they ought to raise or lower it to produce the required
effect
Jevons then applies his fatuous Differential Equations to the
Theory of Labour, of Rent, and of Capital. He says that the
theory of Rent has been accepted by English writers for nearly a
century, and then he cites Anderson's theory of Rent. But in this
he is quite mistaken. It is not Anderson's theory of Rent, but
Ricardo's, which has till lately been accepted by English writers —
though it is utterly rejected by the most distinguished foreign
Economists. Anderson's and Ricardo's theories of Rent are the
exact inverse of each other.
But the fact is that neither Ricardo, nor Jevons, nor any literary
Economists, had any idea of the real meaning of the word Rent,
which would have at once dissipated all these silly theories of Rent.
Nor had Jevons any idea of the true definition of Capital.
However, I am in entire agreement with Jevons's last paragraphs
on the "Noxious Influence of Authority." "There is ever a
tendency of the most hurtful kind to allow opinions to crystallise
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160 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
into creeds. Especially does this tendency manifest itself when
some eminent author, enjoying power of clear and comprehensive
exposition, becomes recognised as an authority. His works may,
perhaps, be the best which are extant upon the subject in question,
they may combine more truth with less error than we can elsewhere
meet. But to err is human, and the best works should ever be
open to criticism. If, instead of welcoming inquiry and criticism,
the admirers of a great author accept his writings as authoritative,
both in their excellencies and their defects, the most serious injury
is done to truth. In matters of philosophy and science authority
has ever been the great opponent of truth. A despotic calm is
usually the triumph of error." " In science and philosophy nothing
must be held sacred." "I protest against deference for any man,
whether John Stuart Mill, or Adam Smith, or Aristotle, being
allowed to check inquiry. Our Science has become far too much a
stagnant one, in which opinions, rather than experience and reason,
are appealed to." To all these remarks we give our heartiest assent.
We do not think it necessary to cite any more authors, because
the purpose of this work is not to be a catalogue of writers on
Economics, but it is a History of Ideas in Economics. And we
have shown that the original concept of Economics was that it is
the science of Commerce or Exchanges, or the Theory of Value.
And after the temporary dislocation of the science by Say and Mill,
all distinguished writers have come back to that conclusion. The
general Economical system of Say and Mill is now as dead as the
dodo.
But as Economics is the Theory of Value, it is necessarily a
mathematical science, just as the Theories of Force, of Light, of
Heat, of Electricity, &c, are mathematical sciences. Many writers,
who perhaps may be able mathematicians, have attempted to make
it so ; but their attempts have been utterly rash and premature.
They never seem to have remembered that in every physical science
the first thing done was to collect the facts, and then to apply
mathematics to these facts. But mathematicians have attempted to
make Economics a mathematical science, without the least attempt
to make themselves acquainted with the elementary facts. They
have imagined that they could evolve the most complex branch of
human knowledge out of their own inner consciousness. Bagehot
rightly designates Economics as the Theory of Business ; therefore,
of course, the details of business are the phenomena of Economics.
No doubt many writers on Economics have been very able and
ingenious men, but they have neglected the very first aphorism of
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<££se Lirv,<7
° rr thf
UN1VERJ
Ch. III.] History of Economics x. c^j* RU|/ i6£-'
Bacon — " Man, the servant and interpreter of Nature, can do and
understand so much, and so much only, as he has observed in fact
or in thought of the course of Nature," and " neither the naked hand
nor the understanding left to itself can do much. It is by instru-
ments and helps that the work is done, which are as much wanted
for the understanding as for the hand."
Economics is, no doubt, a mathematical science, but mathematics ^
only comes in in the third place, as in all physical science. We must
first have a sound philosophy of the subject, before we apply mathe-
matics to it Economics is primarily a juridical science, because it
deals with property of all sorts. It requires a knowledge of the /
most subtle branches of law, to determine what an Economic
Quantity is. Secondly, it requires a thorough knowledge of the
mechanism of commerce, to know how these Economic Quantities
are exchanged with each other; and then, thirdly and lastly, it
requires an adequate knowledge of mathematics and physical
science to know how to bring the laws which govern the relations of
these Economic quantities into harmony with the laws of the other
physical sciences.
Now writers on Economics have almost entirely neglected the
first two of these branches of the subject^ and therefore they never
had any solid foundations whereon to rear up a constructive science,
and therefore they may be called Scholastic Economists, and there-
fore their whole structure has fallen in ruins, just as the Physics of
the Schoolmen did.
Economics is a Physical Science.
Having now got a clear and distinct conception of the Science of
Economics, we see at once how it is a Physical Science. One of
the most distinguished physical philosophers of the present day
expressed to me a doubt that Economics can be made a Physical
Science. But that all depends on its fundamental conception and
definition. So long as it was termed the " Production, Distribution,
and Consumption of Wealth," there was nothing in the name or the
nature of the subject to suggest any resemblance to a Physical
Science. But as soon as we revert to the alternative and equivalent
definition of the science as the Science of Exchanges, or Commerce, .
we perceive at once how it is a Physical Science. Because there
being Three orders of Exchangeable Quantities, and therefore six
species of Exchanges, the object of the Science is to determine the
Laws of the phenomena of these Exchanges — that is to determine
M
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1 62 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
the Laws which govern the changes in their numerical relations.
Hence we have a new order of Variable Quantities; and the
Laws which govern this new order of Variable Quantities must
be in strict harmony with the laws which govern the relations
of Variable Quantities in general. The laws which govern the
4 variable relations of Economic Quantities must be in strict harmony
with the laws which govern the varying relations of the stars in
their courses.
We have then a distinct body of phenomena, all based upon a
single concept, or idea, and therefore fitted to form a great demon-
strative scienqe of the same rank as Mechanics, or Optics, or any
other Physical Science.
Another great body of particulars is won from the vague, floating,
and uncertain mass of knowledge, won from the void and formless
infinite, and fixed and circumscribed by a definition, and formed
into a great Inductive Science, whose investigations must be
governed by the same general principles of Inductive Logic, as
others are, and yet will be found to contribute its quota to
Inductive Logic, bearing a general similarity to its sister sciences,
and yet with peculiarities of its own —
Facies non omnibus una nee diversa tamen : qualis decet esse
scrorum.
And as quantities of such diverse natures as men, cattle, the
wind, gravitation, gunpowder, steam, electricity, &c, are all included
in the science of dynamics, because they all exert force, whose
effects can be measured numerically, and dynamics regards them
simply as forces, wholly irrespective of any other qualities they
may possess ; so we see how Quantities of such diverse natures as
money, lands, houses, debts, labour, copyrights, cattle, the funds,
^ sciences, clothes, and rights of all sorts, are all included in the
science of Economics, because they all possess the Quality of
Exchangeability, or the capability of being bought and sold, or
exchanged ; and the Value of all of .them may be measured in
money, and Economics regards them solely in regard to this Quality,
wholly irrespective of any other Qualities they may possess. Thus
we see the true field of the science; an Economist is one who
\ reasons about the Laws of Value.
It is now universally admitted that Economics is to be con-
structed on principles analogous to those of a physical science.
Now Astronomy is the Physical Science which is the type of
Economics. [The fundamental problem in Economics is exactly the
/ same as the fundamental problem in Astronomy. The Astronomer
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 163
sees a number of Quantities, the heavenly bodies, moving in all S
sorts of directions — sometimes advancing, sometimes apparently
stationary, sometimes retrograding — and his object is to discover a
single General Law which accounts for, and governs, all these
varying relations. So the Economist sees a multitude of Quantities
constantly changing their numerical relations to each other, and his
object is to discover a single General Law which governs all
these varying relations. Like Astronomy, Economics is a pure
science of ratios,3 ^
{And the analogy between Astronomy and Economics may be still
further shown. Some persons say that it is not sufficient to say that
Value originates in Demand; but that the Economist should go .
further, and investigate the cause of Demand. But that would be
a great error. It would introduce the whole of Psychology into
Economics. An Economist, qua Economist, has no more to do
with the causes which produce Demand than an Astronomer, qua
Astronomer, has to do with the cause of gravitationT? (So, also, an
Economist, qua Economist, has no more to do with the processes of
agriculture and manufactures than the Astronomer, qua Astronomer,
has to do with the methods by which the heavenly bodies were
formed. The Astronomer finds his Force, which is Gravitation, and
certain material bodies upon which it acts ; the Economist finds his *
Forces, which are Demand, and certain quantities, which are the
Supply. The business of the Astronomer is to determine the Laws
of the phenomena of the motions of the heavenly bodies, in their
varying relations to each other under the action of the Law of
Gravitation: that defines and limits his science. The business
of the Economist is to determine the Laws of the phenomena of
Exchanges, or the varying relations of Economic Quantitiesjunder
the action of Lord Lauderdale's Law of Value (Value) : that
defines and limits his science : each is a pure science of Variable
Quantities, or Ratios.
Thus, Economics is to the phenomena of Exchanges, or of
Commerce, precisely what Dynamics is to the phenomena of Force,
or Optics is to the phenomena of Light : and so on of the other
physical sciences. Economics is simply the Theory of Value,
which, next to civil government, is the most important thing in
human affairs.
Thus it is clearly seen that Economics is a Physical Science : but
it is also a Moral Science; because it is based upon the mores
— the rjQrj — of men. For we find that the general laws of
Exchange, or the principles of Commerce, hold good among all
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164 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
nations, among the rudest and most civilised, in all ages and
countries. The laws of commerce are identically the same to-day
as they were when commerce first sprung into being, and they will
remain the same to the end of time. We find that the same
causes are invariably followed by the same effects; and that is
the reason why Economics may be raised to the rank of an exact
science : a permanent and universal science of the same nature as
the Physical Sciences.
" The Laws of Commerce, " said Edmund Burke, "are the Laws of
Nature, and therefore the Laws of God." That is why Economics
is a Physical Science ; because it is based upon principles of human
nature which are as universal and permanent as the qualities of the
physical substances upon which the physical sciences are based.
And, therefore, Economics is a Physical Moral Science, and the
only Moral Science which is capable of being raised to the rank
of an exact science.
On the beet Name for the Science.
Having thus got a clear and distinct Science, the next thing is
to consider and determine what is the best name for it. We have
shown how the term Political Economy became attached to the
Science of Exchanges, or Commerce, or of the " Production, Distri-
bution, and Consumption of Wealth." But all Economists are now
anxious to get rid of this term as cumbrous and misleading, and
various other designations have been proposed. Whately proposed
Catallactics : others have proposed Plutology, or Chrematology.
These and various other names which have been proposed, are not
in themselves objectionable, and if the Science had been a new
creation, might perhaps have been adopted. But under present
circumstances, these changes are far too violent to be adopted.
What chance would there be of the public accepting, as the desig-
nation of the cultivators of a Science, the term Catallacticians, or
Plutologists, or Chrematologists ? The name by which a Science is
called is of small importance : the real requisite is, that its nature
and objects should be clearly defined. There is no advantage to be
gained by changing the name of the Science which has once acquired
a firm hold in popular usage, even though that name might not have
been the best, that might have been the best if the Science had been
a new creation.
There are few Sciences which have not undeigone a great
extension, or alteration, of what the meaning of their names would
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 165
suggest Plato, long ago, laughed at the idea of calling the Science
which treats of the motion of the heavenly bodies, Geometry.
Yet Geometry has retained its name from that day to this ; and the
French call a great analyst a great Geometer. Trigonometry has
long extended beyond the measuring of triangles. Who could tell
what Chemistry or Electricity meant by their names? In ancient
times Music meant all the liberal studies: in modern times it is
restricted to the modulation of sounds.
The name of Political Economy, or Economic Science, is so
firmly rooted in the public mind that no advantage could be got by
changing it : and furthermore, there is no reason for changing it, as
the true character of the Science is expressed in its very name. It
is often supposed that qIkq* in Greek means a house, and that an
Economist is the master of a house. But oTkos has a far more
extensive meaning in Greek than that of a house only. Throughout
the whole range of Greek literature, from Homer to Ammonius,
oRcos means Property, or Estate, of every description. Thus, not
only houses, lands, money, corn, timber, jewels, &c, are a man's
oIkos : but also all such property as Bank Notes, Bills of Exchange,
the Funds, Shares in Commercial Companies, Copyrights, Patents,
&c, &c.
Thus Homer says,
KaTcSowi /?icua>s
oIkov 'OSvovijos, rbv 5'owcert <fxwl vietrOai
" They forcibly devour the substance of Ulysses, who they say will
never return"
Also, ta-OUral poi of/cos
"My Property is being devoured"
In the Odyssey, oIkos is used in numerous passages as synony-
mous with Xfri}pa> and PHOTOS-
Herodotus says : *cai oIkov tov irarpds Sta<f>opT)$€VTa.
"And the Property of your father wasted away"
Demosthenes says — oIkoi 8iir\d(riot, #ca& rpiirXturtoi yeyovao-i.
" Their fortunes have doubled and tripled"
In the Economics of Xenophon, Socrates expressly points out
the distinction between olcos and oikio, the latter being the house
only, and the former all a man's substance, or estate. But in later
times, oucta also acquired this extended meaning, it occurs so in the
New Testament
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1 66 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
So Ammonius says : oTkos kiyerai ?} iraxra 01W0.
" oTkos means ail Property"
oIkos was the technical term in Attic Law, to denote a man's
whole substance or estate.
Hence Economics is the most apt and fitting term which could
be chosen to denote the science which treats of the Exchanges
of property. Moreover, the Economists called their science
" Economical Philosophy " : and Condillac expressly defined
"Economic Science" or " Economics " to be the science of
commerce.
Hence we do not propose to make any change at all in the name
of the science. Both of the terms, "Political Economy " and
"Economic Science," are in common use, and it is better to
discontinue that name which is liable to misconstruction, and
which seems to relate to politics, and to adhere to that one which
most clearly defines its nature and extent, as relating only to
Property, and is most analogous to the nature of other sciences.
Long ago we suggested that Economics is the most suitable
name of the science, and this name has now been very generally
adopted.
Economics is, then, simply the Science of Exchanges, or
of commerce, in its widest extent, and in all its forms and
varieties, it treats of Exchanges — all Exchanges — and nothing but
Exchanges.
The definition of the Science which we offer is :
Economics is the science which treats of the Laws which govern
the relations of Exchangeable Quantities.
And the late distinguished Economist, M. Michel Chevalier, did
us the honour to say that in his opinion this is the best definition of
the Science which has been proposed.
Economics as a Liberal Science.
Some idiot nick-named Economics the "dismal science." It
would be impossible to conceive a more complete misnomer.
Economics is the Queen of all sciences, it is in itself a complete
liberal education.
To comprehend Economics it is indispensable to have :
i. An adequate knowledge of Latin and Greek, so as to read
the classical writers in the original : because they abound in notices
of Economical questions, and they contain most of the fundamental
concepts of Economics.
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Ch. III.] History of Economics 167
2. But a mere knowledge of classical Latin and Greek is not
sufficient, it is necessary to have a knowledge of Juridical Latin and
Greek, because in the Pandects of Justinian and the Basilica, which
are the sources of our Mercantile Law, there is a class of words
which, in classical Latin and Greek, mean material commodities,
but in Juridical Latin and Greek, and in modern Mercantile Law,
mean only abstract Eights and Duties.
3. A general knowledge of the Law of Property, because
Economics deals with property of every description.
4. But modern Commerce is carried on almost exclusively by
Credit, consequently it is necessary to have a thorough knowledge
of the Juridical principles of Credit, the most abstruse and profound
branch of Mercantile Law.
5. A thorough knowledge of the principles and mechanism of
Commerce, both agricultural and mercantile.
6. A thorough knowledge of the principles of Natural Philosophy
and modern Algebra, and the capacity of seeing how they are to
be applied to the phenomena of Economics.
7. A knowledge of the history of all nations, because it supplies
the materials for Economics.
There are numberless Mercantile Lawyers who are perfectly well
versed in special points of Mercantile Law, but very few have any
knowledge of the actual mechanism of Commerce.
There are multitudes of Bankers who have a perfect knowledge
of practical business, but who were never trained in the abstruse
principles of Mercantile Law on which their business is based.
Some Mathematicians have attempted to apply mathematics to
Economics ; but as they never had the slightest knowledge of Mer-
cantile Law nor of practical business, their attempts are mere
midsummer madness.
And those who have undertaken to write general treatises on
Economics never had the slightest knowledge of Mercantile Law,
nor of practical business, nor had the faintest knowledge of the
fundamental principles of Natural Philosophy, nor how to apply
them to the phenomena of Economics.
Every science is greater than any of its cultivators. Astronomy
is greater than Hipparchus, than Ptolemy, than Copernicus, than
Kepler, greater even than Newton himself. So Economics is greater
than Turgot, than Quesnay, than Smith, than Ricardo, than Say,
than MilL
To every one who has done good service let us pay rational
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1 68 On the Nature and History of Economics [Bk. I.
respect, but not abject idolatry. He who studies Philosophy
must be a freeman in mind. No one, however eminent, is now
permitted to be a despot in science, and chain up the human
intellect, or arrest the progress of thought
Economics is the noblest and grandest creation of the human
intellect. It is the crown and the glory of the Baconian Philosophy.
No one can thoroughly realise the awful sublimity of the genius
of Bacon until he studies Economics, because it is the literal
realisation of his matchless discovery that the same principles of
Mathematical and Physical Science which govern the phenomena
of nature equally govern the practical business of life.
Time's noblest offspring is its last
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Book II.
THE FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS AND AXIOMS
OF ECONOMICS
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ACCEPTILATION— Release.
dduxixris.
Acceptilation is the Release or Discharge from a debt.
In Roman law, when a debtor came to repay a loan, he brought
the money to his creditor and said something of this sort to him :
" Quod ego tibi promisi, habesne acceptum ?"
" Have you received what I promised you f "
To which the creditor replied :
" Habes acceptumque tuli."
" You have, and I have entered it as received."
In this case the Debtor made an entry of money paid in his
ledger, termed Expensilatio : and the Creditor made an entry of
money received in his ledger, termed Acceptilatio.
These entries of Expensilatio and Acceptilatio, when once made in
their respective ledgers by the parties, were final and conclusive, and
could not be questioned.
All Contracts, or Obligations, created by the mutual consent of
parties, may be cancelled, extinguished, dissolved, and annihilated
by the same mutual consent of the parties by which they were
created.
As Gaius says {Dig. 50, 17, 100), "Omnia quae jure contrahunter
contrario jure pereunt"
" All legal contracts are destroyed by a reverse process"
Consequently, if for any reason whatever the Creditor chose ttf
release the Debtor from his Debt without the actual payment of
money, it was done by the solemn form of Acceptilatio.
• The Debtor went through the legal form of question, and the
Creditor went through the legal form of answer, and then made the
formal entry of Acceptilatio in his ledger : it was then a valid and
final release, and it could not be questioned or disputed.
So at present, if a Creditor gives his Debtor a formal written
receipt for money due, or hands back to him his Promissory Note,
it is a valid and final release of the debt.
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172 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
The Release of a Debt is in all cases Equivalent to a Qift or
Payment of Money.
Euler says that if a person has nothing and owes 50 crowns, his
property is 50 crowns less than nothing. His property is -50
crowns, *>., he is under the duty to pay 50 crowns, and he has
nothing to pay them with. He then says that if any person made
the Debtor a present of 50 crowns to pay his Debt with, he would
be 50 crowns richer than he was before, though his property would
then be o.
Euler is right so far as he goes ; but he has only stated one half
of the case, because the same result may be attained in another way.
As the same result follows whoever gives him the money, we may
suppose that his Creditor makes him a gift of 50 crowns ; and so he
discharges his Debt. The Debtor is now 50 crowns richer than he
was before, and his property is now o.
But the same result may be attained in another way.
Suppose that instead of the double operation of the Creditor
giving his Debtor 50 crowns, and then receiving them back again
in discharge of his Debt, he simply Releases the Debtor from his
Debt, then the Debtor would be 50 crowns richer than before, and
his property would be o.
This example shows that the Release of a Debt is in all cases
whatever equivalent to the Gift, or Payment, of Money, a principle
of the most momentous consequence in modern commerce.
Now, if Money be Positive, +, a Gift, or Payment, is also + ,
and the Gift or Payment of Money is + x +, which equals + .
And if a Debt be Negative, -, to take away or Release is
also-. Hence, Releasing or Cancelling a Debt is - x -, which
also equals + .
Hence Releasing a Debt is absolutely equivalent to making a
Gift of Money.
The doctrine that — x - = + x + is absolutely true in Economics
as it is in all branches of Science, both mathematical and physical ;
and its interpretation in Economics is this :
The Release of a Debt is in all cases whatever Equivalent to the
Qift or Payment of Money.
So Paulus says {Dig. 50, 17, 115): "Si quis obligatione liberatus
est, potest videri cepisse."
Basilica, II., 3, 115 : "o tXtvdtpovfuvos €vo\rjs &>*€? T4 ctAty^ewu."
"Jfe who is Released from an Obligation has gained.9*
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So also : u Per accepti quoque lationem egens debitor etiam earn
pecuniam qua liberatus est, cepisse videtur."
" Even an insolvent Debtor, being freed by a Release, has gained the
amount of what he is released from."
So Pothier says (Traiti des Obligations): "A Release is a
donation."
So Ortolan says (Explication historique des Inst Just liv. ii tit
7, § 543, 547) : " The Release from a Debt is always classed as a
donation in Roman Law."
So Von Savigny says (Traitk de droit Rotnain, liv. ii. ch. 3,
§142): "A simple contract, or the Release from a Debt, may be
the subject of a donation."
Also (ibid §155): "The increase of wealth may result from
... a Credit given to the Debtor, or the Release of a Debt."
" Every Release of a Debt enriches a Debtor. The amount of
the donation is always equal to that of the Debt, even though the
Debtor is insolvent Although the Release from a Debt destined
never to be paid seems a thing of no consequence, the increase of
property does not the less exist In effect, not only does Property
represent a quantity always indeterminate, but its total value may
also be either Positive or Negative. [Negative property is the
inverse of a Right; i.e. a Debt or a Duty.] If, then, property is
reduced to a Negative Value, the diminution of minus is in law a
change identical with the increase of plus for a Positive Value "
(that is, - x - = + x +).
"The Release of a Debt always constitutes a Gift equal to the
amount of the Debt, even though the Debtor is insolvent" (Ibid.
§166.)
"So the Release of a Debt to a Debtor may be a Legacy."
(Dig. 34, 3, 3.)
Application of the Principles of Algebra and Mercantile Law to
Commerce.
It has now to be shown how the Algebraical doctrine that
- x — = + x + , and its legal interpretation that the Release of
a Debt is in all cases equivalent to a Payment in Money, are
applied in commerce.
Suppose that I owe j£ibo to a banker, in how many ways can
I pay him?
1. I may pay him in actual money ; that is, + x + .
2. If I happen to possess ^100 in his Notes, I may tender him
his own Notes ; or if I have an account with him, I may give him a
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174 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Cheque on my account; that is, in either case I release him from
his Debt to me ; that is, - x - .
That is, releasing him from his Debt to me is paying my Debt
to him.
3. I may pay him ^50 in Money and ^50 in his own Notes,
or give him a Cheque for ^50 on my account, and the combined
effect of the two is to discharge and extinguish my Debt of ^100
to him.
Thus I may pay a Debt to my banker wholly in Money, or
wholly by releasing him from his Debt to me, or partly in
Money and partly by releasing him from his Debt to me, and
the effect of these several modes of payment is absolutely
identical.
Thus it is seen that the doctrine that taking away a Negative
Quantity is equivalent to adding a Positive Quantity is absolutely
true in all branches of science.
Thus, in all sciences whatever, - x - = + x +, and in Mercan-
tile Algebra it is to be interpreted thus - .
The Release of a Debt is, in all cases whatever, equivalent to the
Gift or Payment in Money.
The Release of a Debt may be held to extinguish an Obligation
in Three different ways.
There are three different methods in which the Release of a Debt
may be held to extinguish an Obligation.
First Method. — As the Obligation was created by the mutual
consent of the parties, so it may be cancelled and extinguished
by the same mutual consent which called it into existence.
Now, by the general principles of the theory of Algebraical Signs,
to create an Obligation is denoted by + \ +^IO° I
I -£100 )
So to cancel, extinguish, or annihilate an Obligation is denoted
( ~;£lOO J
Now let us observe the effect of the Negative Sign on each of
the parties to the Obligation.
The Creditor's property becomes -( + ;£ioo).
But -( + ;£ioo)= -;£ioo.
That is, the Creditor has lost j£ioo.
The Debtor's property becomes - ( - ^100).
But -(-;£lOo)= +;£lOO.
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That is, the Debtor has gained ^100. Which shows that to
Cancel, or Release, a Debt is exactly equivalent to making a Gift
of Money.
Second Method. — As the Creditor's Right of Action is simply a
piece of Merchandise, Goods, and Chattels, or a Commodity, it
may be the subject of a Donation or Gift exactly like any other
Commodity.
The Creditor may present his Right of Action as a Donation or
Gift to the Debtor himself.
Then the Debtor has the Right to demand (+ ;£ioo) from
himself, and also the Duty to pay (-;£ioo) to himself.
Then his property will be +^100-^100.
These two quantities cancel and extinguish each other, like +a
and - a on the same side of an equation. They vanish together; the
Right is not suspended or in abeyance, it is absolutely extinguished.
The (+^100) ceases to exist as well as the (-;£ioo), and thus
the Obligation is absolutely extinguished
The Creditor has lost ;£ioo, and the Debtor has gained ^100.
Thus, if a person makes another a Gift of ^£100, and also
releases him from a Debt of ;£ioo, the Donee has received a
Gift of ;£aoo.
When Sir Joshua Reynolds died, he held a Bond of Burke's for
^2000. By his will, he bequeathed Burke ^2000 in Money, and
also released Burke from his Bond for ^£2000. Consequently,
Reynolds bequeathed ^4000 to Burke.
Third Method. — There is still a third method by which it can be
explained.
When a Debtor is presented with a Right of Action against him-
self, he fulfils two persona, or characters. He is, at the same time,
Creditor to himself and Debtor to himself.
In his persona of Creditor he presents his Right of Action for
payment to himself in his persona of Debtor. In his persona of
Debtor he pays the Right of Action to himself in his persona of
Creditor. He has thus fulfilled and discharged his duty just
as much as if he had paid it to another individual.
Or in his persona of Creditor he agrees with himself in his
persona of Debtor to cancel and extinguish the Obligation. The
Obligation is then extinguished and annihilated, exactly in the
same manner as if the Creditor and the Debtor had been separate
individuals.
Thus the Obligation is not merely suspended or in abeyance ; it is
absolutely cancelled and extinguished, and ceases to exist
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176 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. 11^
When + ;£ioo Cancels and Extinguishes - ;£ioo, and when it
does not
It must, however, be carefully observed that ( + j£ioo) and
(-;£ioo) in the same person do not always and necessarily cancel
and extinguish each other in Economics.
A person's property may be (+^100) and (-^ioo), and, there-
fore, for practical purposes, equal o; and yet these two quantities
will not cancel and extinguish each other.
It is only when the Right to demand ( + ^100) from himself and
the Duty to pay (-^100) to himself unite in the same person, that
these two quantities cancel and extinguish each other and vanish,
and the Contract, or Obligation, is extinguished.
Suppose that a person has ^100 in gold or notes, and at the same
time owes ^100 to someone else.
Then his property will be ( + j£ioo) and (-;£ioo), and in sub*
stance =0.
But in this case the ( + j£ioo) will not cancel the (-;£ioo), and
the ( + ;£ioo) is not extinguished as an Economic Quantity.
The reason of this is obvious, because his possession of ;£ioo in
gold, or his Right of action against A, is no fulfilment of his Duty
to pay B.
The Debtor may pay away his gold or the ;£ioo in notes, and
leave his own Debt to B unpaid.
Suppose that two bankers each hold ^100 of each other's notes.
Then, so far as regards these notes, the property of each banker is
(+;£100) ^d (-j£ioo)> afld in substance = 0.
But in this case the ( + ^100) and the (-j£ioo) held by each
banker do not cancel each other, because each banker may pay
away the notes of the other in commerce, and there are ^200 of
Economic Quantities in existence. Each banker has the positive
absolute Right to demand ^100, which is his actual property;
but he is only under the contingent Duty to pay ;£ioo if
demanded.
If, however, they exchange notes, each banker will then have the
Right to demand j£ioo from himself and the Duty to pay ^£100 to
himself And each of the Obligations is simultaneously extinguished,
because each banker has performed his Duty of paying the other
by releasing him from his Debt. Then the ^200 of Economic
Quantities are extinguished, and vanish out of existence.
Hence it is only when the Right and the Duty emanate, from the:
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same person, and are again re-united in the same person from whom
they emanated, that the (+j£ioo) and the (-;£ioo) cancel each
other, and the Obligation is extinguished.
How Joint Stock Banks Increase their Capital by Acceptilation.
We shall now give an example of the doctrine that the Release
of a Debt is in all cases equivalent to a Payment in money, which
may surprise some of our readers, and of which we have not seen
the slightest notice anywhere else.
When it is published to the world that the Bank of England has
a paid-up Capital of ^14,000,000, and that several of the Joint
Stock Banks have paid-up Capitals of several millions, most persons
take it for granted that the Banks have these sums paid-up in hard
cash.
Nevertheless, this is a profound error. Of course, it is im-
possible for any outsider to have any precise knowledge as to how
much of these amounts was ever paid-up in actual money. But it
may probably be said with safety, that not so much as one-half of
these various amounts was ever paid-up in real money, but by
another method, which we have now to describe. And it will be
seen that probably the greater portion of these millions of Capital
was never anything more than the Bank's own Credit turned into
Capital.
To explain this, we may observe that the first subscription to the
Bank of England was ;£i, 200,000, which was, of course, paid up
in money. It was advanced to Government, and the Bank was
allowed to issue an equal amount in Notes, which were, of course,
an augmentation of the Currency.
In 1696 the Bank stopped payment, and its Notes fell to a
discount of 20 per cent
In 1697 Parliament undertook the restoration of public credit,
and it was determined to increase its Capital by ^1,000,000. But
not one penny of this was paid up in actual money.
The Act directed that ,£800,000 of the subscription should be
paid-up in Exchequer tallies or Exchequer bills, and the remaining
;£ 200,000 in the Banks own depreciated Notes, which were received at
their full value as Cash.
Thus, of its first increase of Capital, ^200,000 consisted of its
own depreciated Notes. The Bank was authorised to issue an
additional amount of Notes equal to its increase of Capital. At
subsequent increases of Capital, the subscribers might always pay
N
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178 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II:
up any amount they pleased in the Bank's own Notes, which were
held as equivalent to a payment in money, and an increase of
Capital. Thus, the release of the Bank from payment of its Notes
was held to be an increase of its Capital.
In 1727 the Bank of Scotland increased its Capital. The sub-
scription was partly paid-up in the Bank's own Notes. An outcry
was raised against this. But the Directors justly answered : " But
the objectors do not all consider this point, for the payments are
many of them made in specie ; and Bank Notes are justly reckoned
the same as specie when paid in on a call of stock, because when
paid in it lessens the demand on the Bank"
Hence, the Directors clearly understood that the Release of a Debt
is in all respects equivalent to a Payment in money.
The Bank had issued its Notes, and was, of course, Debtor to
the holders of them. m These Debts were Negative Quantities, or
Liabilities to pay. The subscribers might either pay in specie, that
was + x + , or Release the Bank from its Debt to them, that was
- x - , and the effect of either transaction was exactly the same.
At every increase of Capital the same operations would be repeated ;
payments in Money and in the Bank's own Notes would always be
treated as equivalent. And hence at every increase of Capital, a
certain amount of the Bank's own Temporary Credit would be
turned into Permanent Capital.
Thus we see that the Parliament of England, and the Directors
of the Bank of Scotland, who were probably equally innocent of
Roman Law and Algebra, simply from their own mercantile instinct
treated the Release of a Debt as in all respects equivalent to a Pay-
ment in Money> or they recognised that in Commerce - x - = +
x + .
Banks, therefore, which issue Notes may increase their Capital by
receiving them in payment. But Banks which do not issue Notes
may increase their Capital exactly in the same way. A customer of
the Bank who has a balance at his Credit, is in exactly the same
position as a noteholder. If he wishes to subscribe to an increase
of Capital, he simply gives the Bank a cheque on his account.
That is equally a Release to the Bank from a Debt as a payment in
the Bank's own Notes, and an increase of Capital.
If the customer has not sufficient funds on his account to pay for
the stock he requires, he may bring the Bank bills to discount. The
Bank discounts these bills by creating a Credit or Deposit in his
favour, which is, of course, a Negative Quantity, or a Debt, exactly
like a Bank-note. The customer then gives the Bank a cheque on
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his account ; that is, he Releases the Bank from the Debt which it
has just created in his favour, and that Debt released, then becomes
an increase of Capital.
This is the way in which the Capital of all Joint Stock Banks is
increased. And it may go on to any extent without any payment
in money. And, consequently, it is wholly impossible for anyone
who has not had access to the books of the Bank to ascertain what
proportion of its Capital consists of payment in Money, and what
proportion consists of the Bank's own Temporary Credit turned
into Permanent Capital.
ACCOMMODATION PAPER.
Bills of Exchange are usually considered to have arisen out of
past transactions. The merchant having sold his goods to the
trader for a Right of Action, Credit, or Debt, he may sell this
Debt to his banker. If the banker discounts the bill, he has two
names as securities : first, the acceptor of the bill, or the buyer of
Che goods, who is the Debtor primarily responsible, or the principal
debtor, as*he;is called ; and, secondly, his own customer, who indorses
the bill to]him, and so becomes security that if the principal debtor
does not'pay the bill, he will.
But banking 'Credits may be created to effect future transactions,
as well as to buy Debts created by past transactions.
Suppose j that a merchant wishes to effect a purchase, he. may
request his banker to discount his Promissory Note, so as to obtain
a Credit to effect his purchase. But the banker may say to him
that it is against his rules to discount any instrument containing
only one name ; but that if he can get any responsible friend to
stand security for^him by indorsing his Note, he will discount it
for him. Suppose, then, that his friend joins with him, without
having received any consideration in indorsing the Note, such an
instrument would be [an Accommodation Note*
And when any person puts his name on a bill, either as drawer,
acceptor, or indorser, and so stands security for its payment,
without having received any consideration for so doing, it is
termed an Accommodation Bill.
The banker, now having two names on the instrument, discounts
it, and the merchant, having now a Credit on his account, purchases
goods, the proceeds from the sale of which are intended to meet the
bill when it becomes due.
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180 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Now, it is evident that the security of this bill, which is an
Accommodation Bill, is exactly the same as if it had been a real
bill, or one founded on a preceding transaction.
What difference can it make whether a bill, which arose out of
a past transaction, is sold for a Banking Credit, and the goods
are sold to meet the bill, or a bill is sold for a Banking Credit,
and goods are purchased with it to meet the bill? The practical
effect is that B stands security to the Bank for the advance made
to A, and what is there in the nature of such a transaction
anything worse than for one man to stand security for another in
any commercial transaction?
A great deal has been said and written about the difference
between Real and Accommodation Bills; and while no terms of
admiration are too strong for the first, no terms of vituperation
are too strong for the latter. Thus Mr. Bell says, "The difference
between a genuine commercial bill and an accommodation bill is
something similar to the difference between a genuine coin and a
counterfeit one"; as if the fact of negotiating* an Accommodation
Bill were in itself one of moral turpitude.
It is generally assumed that real bills possess some sort of
security, because it is supposed that there is Property to represent
them. Such an idea is not uncommon among scholastic Economists,
but it is utterly fallacious. As we have pointed out (Bill of
Exchange), Real and Accommodation Bills have exactly the
same security; they are simply claims against the persons of the
obligants, which they are liable to make good out of their whole
estates. The bills are no title or claim to the goods which have
been purchased with them. The objection, therefore, to Accom-
modation Bills on that ground is futile.
The essential distinction between Real and Accommodation Bills
is that one represents past transactions and the other future trans-
actions. In a Real Bill, goods have been purchased to meet the bill ;
in an Accommodation Bill, goods are to be purchased to meet the
bilL But this is no ground of preference of one over the other. A
transaction which has been done may be just as wild, foolish, and
absurd as one which has to be done. The intention of engaging in
any mercantile transaction is that the result should repay the outlay
with a profit. There is no other test but this of its propriety in a
mercantile sense.
The common objections against Accommodation Paper are, there-
fore, quite futile, and wide of the mark ; and the proof of it is that
what was, until quite recently, the largest, safest, and most profitable
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A.] Accommodation Paper 181
part of Scotch banking is entirely of the nature of Accommodation
Paper.
The system of Accommodation Paper is one of immense import-
ance in modern commerce, and the abuses of one kind of it have
contributed to produce the greatest calamities. We must, therefore,
examine more closely this species of Accommodation Paper, which,
having been abused by unscrupulous persons for fraudulent pur-
poses, has produced the most frightful mercantile convulsions;
and we must point out wherein the danger and the fraud of this
particular species of Accommodation Paper consist.
Explanation of the Real Danger of Accommodation Paper.
•{Quoted by Mr. Commissioner Holroyd in his judgment in re Laurence, Mortimer ■,
and Schroder.— " Standard," March 7th. 1861.)
We have now to explain wherein the difference between Real and
Accommodation Paper consists, and wherein the danger of Accom-
modation Paper lies.
Suppose that a manufacturer or wholesale dealer has sold goods
to ten customers, and received ten bond-fide trade bills for them ; he
then discounts these ten bills with his banker. The ten acceptors
-of these bills, having received value for them, are the principal
debtors to the bank, and are bound to meet them under the penalty
of commercial ruin. The bank has their names as acceptors, or
real principal debtors, on the bills, and its own customer as security
on each of them. The bank also keeps a certain balance of its
customer's in its hands, proportionate to the discount allowed.
Even under the best of circumstances, an acceptor may fail to
meet his bill. The banker then debits his customer's account with
the bill, and gives it to him back. The drawer has an action
against the acceptor, because it is a real debt due to him. If there
should not be enough on his account, the customer is called upon
to pay the difference. If the worst comes to the worst, and its
-customer fails, the bank can pursue its remedy against the estates
of both parties, without in any way affecting the position of the
other nine acceptors, who, of course, are still bound to meet their
own bills.
In the case of Accommodation Bills there are very material
differences. To the eye of the banker there is no visible difference
between Real and Accommodation Bills. They are, nevertheless,
very different, and it is in these differences that the real danger of
Accommodation Paper consists.
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1 82 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. IL
In Accommodation Bills, the person for whose accommodation
the drawing, indorsing, or accepting, as the case may be, is done, is
bound to provide funds to meet the bill, or to indemnify the person
who lends his name. In a Real Bill, the acceptor is the principal
debtor, who is bound to provide funds to meet the bill, and the
drawer is a mere surety. In the most usual form of Accommodation*
— that of an acceptance — the drawer is the real principal debtor,
who has to provide funds to meet the bill, and the acceptor is a
mere surety ; and if he is called upon to meet the bill, he is entitled
to sue the drawer, as the principal debtor, for the amount
Now suppose, as before, A gets ten of his friends to accommodate
him with their names as acceptors, and discounts these bills with his
banker, it is A's duty to provide funds to meet every one of the ten
bills. There is, in fact, only one real principal debtor and ten
sureties. Now, these ten Accommodation acceptors are ignorant of
each other's proceedings. They only gave their names to the
drawer on the express understanding that they were not to be called
upon to meet their bill, and accordingly they make no provision to-
do so. If any one of them is called upon to meet his bill, he has
an immediate remedy against the drawer. In the case of Real
Bills, then, the bank has ten real principal debtors, who would each
take care to meet his own acceptance, and only one surety. In the
case of Accommodation Bills, the bank has only one real principal*
debtor to meet the acceptances of ten. Thus, there is only one real
principal debtor and ten sureties.
Furthermore, if one of ten real acceptors fails to meet his bill,,
the bank can safely press the drawer, because it will not affect
the position of the nine other acceptors. But if the drawer
of the Accommodation Bill fails to meet any one of the ter*
acceptances, and the bank suddenly discovers that it is an Accom-
modation Bill, and it is under large advances to the drawer, it dare
not, for its own safety, press the acceptor, because he will, of course^,
have immediate recourse against the drawer as his debtor, and the
whole fabric will probably tumble down like a house of cards.
Hence, the chances of disaster are much greater when there is only
one person to meet the engagements of ten, than when there are ten*
persons, each bound to meet his own acceptance.
The real danger, then, to a bank in being led into discounting
Accommodation Paper, is that the position of principal and surety
is reversed. It is deceived as to who the real debtor is, and who-
the surety is, being precisely the reverse to what they appear to be,
which makes a very great difference in the security of the holder of
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the bills. In fact, the parties are not governed by the contract
Visible on the face of the bills, which the banker believes in, but
by a Latent contract collateral to the bills, of which he knows
nothing.
To advance Money by way of Cash Credit, or by loan with
security, is quite a different affair, because the bank then knows
exactly what it is doing, and as soon as anything occurs amiss, it
knows the remedy to be adopted. Moreover, it never permits the
advance to exceed a certain definite limit ; but it never can tell to
what lengths it may be inveigled into discounting Accommodation
Paper, until some commercial reverse happens, when it may discover
that its customer has been carrying on some great speculative opera-
tion with capital borrowed from it alone.
This is the rationale of Accommodation Paper, pure and simple.
We have now to examine a species of Accommodation Paper
still more subtle and still more dangerous, and this because though
it is really and in its very nature Accommodation Paper, yet it is
not so in technical jurisprudence.
On Mutual Accommodation Paper, and its danger to a Bank.
The Accommodation Paper just described may be termed Simple
Accommodation Paper, and that which we have now to describe
may not inaptly be designated as Compound Accommodation
Paper.
We have shown that the real and genuine distinction between
Real and Accommodation Paper is that Real Paper is based upon
a simultaneous transfer of goods, the proceeds of which are expected
to redeem the bill at maturity ; and in Accommodation Paper, bills
are created, not based upon any past or simultaneous transfer of
goods, but for the express purpose of purchasing goods in the future
to redeem the bills. If these two species of transactions are done
with equal care and judgment, and with the full knowledge of all
parties of the real nature of the transaction, there is nothing more
dangerous or improper in one species of paper than in the other.
We have now to deal with a species of paper which is, in its real
nature, Accommodation Paper, because it consists of Paper not
founded upon any past or simultaneous transfer of goods, but
consists of Paper created for the express purpose of purchasing
goods after it has been created. But yet in jurisprudence it is not
Accommodation Paper, because it is held to be given for good and
valuable consideration ; and, therefore, though in very many cases it
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184 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
is a moral fraud, yet it is not a legal fraud, and it is to this species
of Paper that most of the great Commercial Crises are due.
We have now to explain how very much more dangerous to a
bank this species of Paper is than the worst calamities which can
happen from Real Paper.
We have elsewhere pointed out the very common error that all
Bills of Exchange are paid in money. Bills in modern usage are
very seldom paid in actual money, and only in a very few isolated
instances; they are paid by discounting fresh bills. Thus, in
ordinary times, Debts are always paid by creating new Debts.
No doubt, if the banker refuses to discount the new bills, the
customer must discharge his bills in money. But, then, no trader
ever expects to "have to do that. He has usually a fixed discount
limit, and if he brings good bills, he has little less than an absolute
right to have them discounted. And if the banker suddenly calls
upon him to meet his bills in money, it might oblige him to sell
his bills at a great sacrifice, or might cause his ruin.
However, it is always supposed that the bills discounted are good
ones; that is, they could be paid in money if required. Thus,
though in common practice very few bills are really ever paid in
money, it is manifest that the whole stability of the bank depends
upon the last bills discounted being good ones.
Now suppose that a customer for a considerable time brings good
bills to his banker, and acquires a good character with him, and so
throws him off his guard. Owing, perhaps, to some temporary
embarrassment, or wishing to push his speculations, he goes to
some of his friends, and gets them to accept bills without having
any property to meet them. He then takes these accommodation
bills to his banker. The banker, trusting to his good character,
discounts the bills. In course of time these accommodation bills
must be met, and the way he does it is to create fresh similar bills.
The drawer may be speculating in trade, and losing money every
day; but his bills must be met, and there is no other way of
meeting them but by constantly creating fresh bills. By this
means he may extract indefinite sums from his banker, and give
him in return — so many bits of paper. Now, when discounts are
low, and times are prosperous, this system may go on for many
years. But at last a crisis comes. The Money, i.e. the Credit,
Market becomes "tight" Bankers not only raise the rate of
discount, but they refuse to discount so freely as before. They
contract their issues. The accommodation bills are in the bank,
and must be met But if the banker refuses to discount fresh
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bills, they must be met in money. But all the property the
speculators may have had may have been lost twenty times over;
so, when the crisis comes, they have nothing to turn into
money. Directly the banker refuses to meet his customers' bills
by his own Credit, he wakes to the pleasant discovery that,
in return for the money he has paid, he has got so many pieces
of paper!
This is the rationale of Accommodation Paper, and we see how
entirely it differs from Real Paper. Because with Real Paper and
bond-fide sales, though losses may come, yet, directly the loss occurs,
there is an end of it ; but with Accommodation Paper, the prospect
of a loss is the very cause of a greater one being made, and so
on in an ever-widening circle, until the canker may eat into the
banker's assets to any extent
It is also clear that if a trader, having got a good character and a
high position in commerce, may do so much mischief to a single
banker, his capacity for mischief is vastly increased if, from his
high position and old standing, he is able to discount with several
banks, for then he is able to diminish greatly the chances of
detection.
The history of the most notorious instances of failure caused by
the scandalous abuse of Accommodation Paper would illustrate
these remarks ; but their analysis would be too long for a work of
this kind, which is mainly concerned with the exposition of prin-
ciples, without too elaborate an account of details.
From these accommodation bills to forged bills there is but one
step. It is but a thin line of division between drawing upon a man
who is notoriously unable to pay, and drawing upon a person who
does not exist at all, or forging an acceptance. In practical morality
and in its practical effects there is none. Traders do not even take
the trouble to get a beggar to write his name on their bills, but they
invent one. The case of traders in a large way of business dealing
with a vast number of small country connections affords great
facilities for such rogueries. They begin by establishing a good
character for their bills. Their business gradually increases. Their
connections, as they say, gradually extend all over the kingdom.
The banker, satisfied with the regularity of the account, cannot take
the trouble to send down to every small country town to inquire
into the acceptor of every small bill. The circle gradually enlarges,
until some fine morning the whole affair blows up. The ingenuity
sometimes exercised by traders in carrying out such a system is
absolutely marvellous.
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1 86 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
It is in times of speculation in large commodities that Accommo-
dation Paper is peculiarly rife. In a great failure of the harvest,
when great importations were required, and it was expected that
prices would rise very high, every corn merchant wanted to buy as
much as possible. But if no real sales had taken place, there could
be no real trade bills. They therefore proceeded to manufacture
accommodation bills in order to extract funds from bankers to
speculate with. No banker in his senses would actually advance
money for them to speculate with with his eyes open. Nevertheless,
they must have funds. This they did by cross acceptances. One
merchant drew bills upon another merchant, who accepted them;
he then drew in turn upon his drawer, who accepted in his turn.
They then went and discounted these cross acceptances with as
many bankers as possible, in as many different parts of the country
as possible, so that their proceedings might not come too much
under the notice of any particular bank.
Such proceedings can never take place again in the corn trade as
they used to, because, with the area of supply so extended, and the
means of transport so accelerated and cheapened as they have been
during the last forty years, no failure of the harvest in this country
can ever cause corn to rise to such a price as it did in 1847; though
what it might do in time of war we cannot say, and it is to be hoped
that such an experience may not occur.
In the Crimean War, there was a great and sudden demand for
shipping; an enormous amount of Accommodation Paper was
manufactured by the Liverpool shipowners, and discounted all over
the kingdom.
Whenever great speculation in commodities may take place again,
the same things will recur. And the quantities of Accommodation
Paper manufactured on such occasions is something astonishing.
This Accommodation Paper is discounted by banks creating fresh
credits in the form of Deposits. So these deposits swell up, and
they are only so many Bank-notes in disguise, and then the public
holds up its hands in astonishment at the vast sums the banks have
to trade with, whereas it is not solid money at all, but only paper.
But this immense augmentation of the Circulating Medium, or
Currency, raises prices all round.
The insurmountable objection, therefore, to this species of paper
is the dangerous and boundless facility it affords for raising money
for speculative purposes. And there is much reason to fear that
this pernicious system prevails to a much greater extent than is
commonly supposed. Even in quiet times it has been said that
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A.] Accommodation Paper 187
it is surmised that one-fourth of the paper in circulation is Accom-
modation Paper; and in times of great speculation the proportion
is for greater than that
The Legislature has imposed rigid limits on the issues of notes
by banks, and many persons think that it might be possible to curb
the creation of this pestilent kind of paper by law.
But, unfortunately, such a thing is not possible. The difficulty
consists in determining what is really Accommodation Paper. As a
matter of Economics, all these cross acceptances are pure Accom-
modation Paper; but they are not so in jurisprudence.
The whole question turns on the Consideration. An accommoda-
tion bill in law is a bill to which the drawer, acceptor, or indorser,
as the case may be, puts his name, without consideration, for the
purpose of benefiting or accommodating some other party, who is
to provide funds to meet the bill when due. But the consideration
may be of many sorts. It does not by any means necessarily imply
a sale of goods at the time. Moreover, a bill may be an accom-
modation bill at the time it is created, but if any consideration is
given for it during the period of its currency, it ceases to be an
accommodation bill.
Moreover, the consideration may be of many sorts. If A draws
a bill upon B, who accepts it for A's accommodation for the express
purpose of enabling him to get it discounted by a bank, that is a
pure accommodation bill. But if B draws an exactly similar bill
upon A, who accepts it for the accommodation of B, to enable him
to get it discounted by a bank, then neither of the bills is an
accommodation bill, but they are each of them given for a good
consideration- The liability which each incurs by accepting the
other's bill is the consideration for his own acceptance.
To an unlearned reader this may seem somewhat strange doctrine,
but, nevertheless, it is firmly established law.
In Rolfe v. Caslon (2 H. Blacks. 571), A and B being desirous to
accommodate each other, each drew a bill upon the other, and
accepted one in return, the two bills being precisely alike in date,
amount, and time of payment, neither party having any effects of
the other in his hands. The Court was clearly of opinion that the
two bills were mutual engagements, constituting on each part a
Debt, the one being the consideration for the other.
In another case, Coivley v. Dunlop (7 T.R. 565), Grose, J., said,
"The instant the bills were exchanged, each was indebted to the other
in the sum which was the amount of their respective acceptances ;
for the counter-acceptances were a good consideration to found a
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1 88 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. IL
Debt upon either side respectively. In the case of a single
accommodation acceptance, there is no debt to the acceptor; the
Debt only accrues by the payment of the money. The acceptor
qud acceptor can never be a creditor, his acceptance imports the
admission of a debt from him to another; and when he has paid
as acceptor, if he paid for any other person, in consequence of
any request from that other, he becomes a creditor, not on the face
of the bill) but by a contract collateral to the bill. When two persons
exchange acceptances, each becomes the debtor of the other upon
his accepted bill. But when a man accepts without consideration,
he is never a creditor of the person for whom he accepts till he
pays — from that payment arises the Debt. But when the ac-
ceptances were exchanged, the debts arise from these acceptances."
These doctrines were repeated and confirmed by the whole Court
of King's Bench, in the subsequent cases of Rose v. Sims (iB. and
Aid. 521), and Buckler v. Buttivant (3 East, 72).
This doctrine, which is quite unanswerable, shows how impossible
it is to deal legislatively with this kind of Accommodation Paper.
At least, they must be very poor rogues indeed who cannot manu-
facture any amount of bona-fide bills they please. Two ragamuffins
have only to get as many bills as they fancy — if they can only
pay for the stamps. One engages to pay j£iooo to the order of
the other; that would be an Accommodation Bill. The second
then engages to pay ^1000 to the order of the first. These are
no longer Accommodation Bills, but are two good bond-fide bills,
each given for a good consideration. If two such bills are good,
then two thousand, or any larger number of similar bills, are
equally good. Bankers would look askance at such paper; but
jurisprudence declares them all to be good bond-fide bills, given
for a good consideration.
Stated in the above form, the doctrine may seem somewhat
startling to some persons; but when we consider the principle of
the case, and not the accidental circumstance that the two persons
who may do it are insolvent, the difficulty disappears, for it is just
what happens every day in banking. It is quite common for a
banker to discount the simple promissory note of a well-to-do
customer. The note given by the customer constitutes the con-
sideration for the Deposit, Credit, or Right of Action created by the
banker; and the Right of Action or the Deposit created by the
banker is the consideration given to purchase the note of the cus-
tomer. Each, therefore, is the consideration for the other — each
party gives value to the other.
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A.] Annuity 189
It is precisely the same principle in the other case. If the issuers
of the bills are able to purchase goods with them, they may be paid
off at maturity. If they cannot do so, the re-exchange of the
securities is the mutual payment of each debt, precisely in the same
manner as when two bankers exchange notes, or when a merchant
pays his acceptance to a banker in the banker's own notes. The
two contracts are extinguished by Compensation. The accident that
both the creators of the bills are insolvent does not affect the
juridical principles of the case.
In times of great speculation, these cross acceptances are manu-
factured to an enormous extent among merchants; and the more
cross acceptances they can manufacture and get discounted by
bankers, the more funds the adventurers have to speculate with.
But such things are always sure to be overdone. As soon as any
new and extensive market is suddenly opened up, multitudes of
speculators are sure to rush in, and create vast amounts of paper
which can never be redeemed. And when this is done on a suffi-
ciently large scale, a commercial crisis is produced; and if this
commercial crisis is not properly and judiciously met, and it reaches
a certain degree of intensity, it produces a monetary panic, in which
merchants and bankers fall together.
ANNUITY.
An Annuity is the Right to demand and receive a series of
payments.
The lowest form of an Annuity is the Right to receive one future
payment, such as a Bank-note or a Bill of Exchange. The highest
form of an Annuity is to receive a series of future payments for
ever, such as an estate in land or the Funds. An Annuity to
receive a series of payments intermediate between these extreme
terms is called a Terminable Annuity.
We shall now show the great practical importance of applying
the Positive and Negative signs to Property (Property), and of
denoting the Right to Property in things which have already come
into possession as Positive, and the Right or Property to things
which will only come into possession at some future time as
Negative. Because many species of Property are of a mixed
nature; that is, the entire Property in them consists partly of
Corporeal Property and partly of Incorporeal Property.
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190 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Property in Land is the highest of all, and to understand the
nature of Property in Land is the grammar of Property in general.
Suppose that we saw a piece of Land, on which there were
actually existing products of the value of ^3000. Suppose that
we wished to purchase that piece of Land. Would the owner of
the Land be content to sell it to us for ^3000 ? Most assuredly
he would not. He would say that, though there were only products
of the value of ^3000 on the Land in actual existence at the
present time, yet the Land would produce a similar amount of
products to the end of time. He would say that we must purchase
not only the right to the existing products of the land, but also the
Right to the annual products of the land to the end of time ; that
is, an infinite series of future products, which will only come into
existence year by year.
Thus, Property in Land consists of two perfectly distinct parts —
the Right to the products which have already come into existence,
and the Right to the products which will only come into existence
in future.
Thus, Property in Land may be conveniently denoted thus :
Existing products of the land ( + ^3000), together with ( - ^3000,
— ^3°°°» ~ j£3°°° ... for ever).
Where the Positive Sign denotes the products which have already
<:ome into existence, and the Negative Sign denotes the products
which will only come into existence year by year for ever.
But though the yearly products of the land will only come into
existence at future intervals of time, the Right, or Property, to them
when they do come into existence is Present, and it may be
bought and sold like any material chattel — like a watch or a horse.
That is to say, each of these annual products has a Present
Value, and the purchase money of the land is simply the Sum of
the Present Values of this infinite series of future products.
Again, although this series of future products is infinite, a simple
Algebraical formula shows that it has a finite limit ; and that finite
limit depends chiefly on the usual average Rate of Interest. When
the usual average Rate of Interest is 3 per cent., the theoretical
value of the land would be about 33 times its annual value.
Consequently, of the total value of land, one part only is Corporeal,
the remaining 32 parts are Incorporeal.
Now, when a purchaser has bought an estate in land, it may be
said, without any great metaphor, that it Owes him a series of
annual payments for ever ; because he only bought it in the belief,
or expectation, that it would yield these profits. Hence, we may
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A.] Annuity 191
call the Right to receive the future profits of the land the Credit
of the land, and by the notation we have adopted, it is a Negative
Economic Quantity.
Thus the purchase of an estate in land is simply the purchase of
a Perpetual Annuity.
Every Sum of Money is Equivalent to the Sum of the Present Values
of an Infinite Series of Future Payments.
The investigation of the Theory of the Value of Land demon-
strates a proposition of great importance in Economics.
It is seen that the ^100,000 given to purchase the estate in
land, expected to produce ^3000 a year, is, in reality, the sum
of the Rights to its future products for ever. Every annual product
has a Present Value, and the value of the land is simply the Sum
of this infinite series of Present Values.
But tlie same is evidently true of every sum of money. Hence,
every sum of money is not only equal in value to a certain quantity
of material goods, or to a certain quantity of services, but also to a
Perpetual Annuity.
Hence, an Annuity, or the Right to receive a series of future
payments, is an Economic Quantity, which may be bought and
sold, or exchanged, or whose value may be measured in money,
like any material chattel.
As when a sum of Money is given to purchase Land, or the
Funds, or Municipal or other Obligations, such as Railway
Debentures.
So an Annuity may be paid to secure a certain sum of money
at a given time, or on a given contingency, such as a Life or Fire
Insurance.
It is thus seen that Economics comprehends Three great depart-
ments— (1) Material Things; (2) Personal Qualities, both in the
form of Labour and Credit; (3) Annuities.
The first school of Economists restricted their attention to the
first of these departments, and refused to take any notice of the
other two. Adam Smith, J. B. Say, and J. S. Mill have given
much attention to the second, and treated Labour as a marketable
commodity. They have also noticed the existence of the third
department, but they never made any attempt to exhibit the
commerce in Rights. And yet, at the present day, it is the most
extensive of any.
Hence, it is seen that all Annuities, or Rights to receive a series
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192 Fundamental Concepts aad Axioms [Bk. II.
of future payments, whether the Right be to receive a single future
payment, or a limited, or an infinite number of them, are Negative
Economic Quantities.
These Negative Economic Quantities comprehend all Mercantile
and Banking Credit, such as Bank - notes, Cheques, Bills of
Exchange, and all Instruments of Credit; Exchequer Bills, Navy
Bills, Dividend Warrants, &c. ; the Land, the Funds, Terminable
Annuities, Shares in Commercial Companies, the Goodwill of a
Business, a Professional Practice, Copyrights, Patents, Tolls, Ferries,
Market Rights, Advowsons, Benefices, Shootings, Fisheries, Lease-
holds, Policies of Insurance of different kinds, and many other
valuable Rights, amounting in value to scores of thousands of
millions in this country, of which there is scarcely any notice in the
common text-books on Economics.
By introducing all this class of Incorporeal Property, I have
doubled the field of Economics.
ASSIGNABLE INSTRUMENTS.
There are two classes of paper documents which circulate in com-
merce, and are transferable by indorsement, which are of two
distinct natures — (1) those which arise out of a Bailment, and
(2) those which arise out of a Debt.
When goods are bailed, or entrusted to the care of a person,
either to keep in safe custody for the owner, or to transport thero
from one place to another, the bailee, or trustee, gives the owner a
paper document acknowledging their receipt, and promising to
deliver them to the person to whom the paper document is duly
indorsed.
In this case the bailee, or trustee, acquires no property in the
goods. If he used them for his own purposes or for his own profit it
would be a felony. The property in the goods resides in the bailor,
and remains in him till they are duly and lawfully transferred to the
indorsee. This paper, therefore, is a title to those specific goods
and to no others. It is one property with the goods, and cannot
circulate separately from them, and the law of its transfer follows
the law of goods. It is transferable by indorsement, but the
validity of the transfer depends on the validity of the title of the
transferor. If the transferor is not lawfully possessed of the goods
he cannot transfer the property in them, which he does not possess,
to anyone else. The property in them remains in the rightful
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B.] Bailment and Debt 193
owner, who can recover them if he finds them in the unlawful
possession of anyone else. This right of recovery is termed the
Jus vindicandi. Such documents are siWJura in re.
The class of Assignable Instruments comprehends Bills of Lading,
Dock Warrants, and others.
These documents are termed in law, Documents of Title*
BAILMENT AND DEBT.
On the Distinction between a Bailment and a Debt
There is a very common and most important misconception
which must be cleared away.
There are three classes of Paper Documents which circulate in
commerce, and have a superficial resemblance ; that is, they are all
transferable. Many writers, seeing this superficial resemblance,
consider them all to be of the same nature, and include them under
the title of Credit This, however, is a profound and most vital
error.
These three classes of instruments, though they have one point
in common, namely, being transferable, are yet fundamentally
distinct in their nature and effects.
These three species of Paper Documents are :
1. Bank-notes, Cheques, Bills of Exchange, Exchequer Bills,
Navy Bills, Dividend Warrants, and all other Securities for Money.
All these are Instruments of Credit, and are termed Valuable
Securities in Law. They are all Jura in personam, and are
Negotiable Instruments.
2. Bills of Lading, Dock Warrants, and all other Titles to specific
goods. They are termed Documents of Title in Law. They
are all Jura in re, and are Assignable Instruments.
3. Drafts, or Orders for the payment of Money.
In order to understand clearly the fundamental distinction
between these three classes of documents, we shall explain how
each arises.
Bank-notes, Cheques, Bills of Exchange, and all Securities for
Moneys arise out of the Sale, or Exchange, of the Mutuum.
Paper Credit always arises out of a Sale or Exchange. The goods,,
or money given in exchange for the Credit, become the actual
Property of the buyer, and the seller has nothing but a Right of
Action against the buyer. It is the absolute fundamental requisite
o
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194 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
of all forms of Paper Credit, that they shall be absolutely severed
from any specific money. They are even forbidden to be paid out
of any specific fund. They must be nothing but pure abstract
Rights against a Person, who is bound to pay them without any
condition. That is the very circumstance from which they derive
their name of Credit, because they are only accepted in commerce
on the faith, confidence, and belief that the Debtor can redeem
them when due. Hence, they are independent Economic Quantities.
They are a mass of Exchangeable Property, just like any other
merchandise. They do not represent money, but they are exchange-
able for money. They are all part of the Circulating Medium,
or Currency. They all affect prices, and produce exactly the same
effects as an equal quantity of money. All these securities for
Money arise out of a Debt
But Bills of Lading and Dock Warrants arise out of a
transaction of a totally different nature.
When a person ships goods on board a vessel, he receives from
the master a Paper Document, acknowledging the receipt of the
goods, and promising to deliver the goods to another person, the
consignee, or to anyone else to whom the consignee may have
transferred die document by indorsement. And so it may be
sold, transferred, and assigned any number of times, exactly like
a Bill of Exchange. And the person to whom the Bill is last
indorsed may go to the master and demand the goods from him,
like the payee of a Bill of Exchange. And the master is bound
to deliver the goods to the last indorsee, because they are his
Property.
Similarly, when goods are deposited in a dock warehouse, the
dock master gives a Paper Document, or Receipt, for them, of a
similar nature to a Bill of Lading, which document is termed
a Dock Warrant This may be sold and transferred any
number of times, by indorsement, like a Bill of Lading or a Bill
of Exchange, and whoever buys the Dock Warrant becomes the
owner of the goods described in it, and is entitled to demand
and receive them from the dock master*
And there are other Paper Documents of a similar nature.
The delivery of such goods, in these cases, is termed a Bail-
ment. The master, or the dock master, is merely the Bailee or
Trustee of the goods, and he acquires no Property in them. He
receives merely the Right of Possession of them for a limited time,
and for a specific purpose. He has no right to convert them to
his own use, or to deal with them in any way, except the one for
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$.] Bailment and Debt 195
which they are bailed to him ; if he did so, it would be a robbery,
and he would be indictable as a thie£ In such cases no new
Property is created. The property in the goods remains with the
shipper or depositor, and is transferred by him along with the Bill
of Lading, or Dock Warrant
From this it follows that Bills of Lading and Dock Warrants
are titles to specific goods, and to no others. They form one
Property with the goods, and cannot be separated from them.
Whoever acquires the property in the Bill of Lading, or Dock
Warrant, acquires the property in the very goods described in
them. Thus these Paper Documents may be said to represent
goods, and they travel along with the goods. In every case where
a Bill of Lading, or Dock Warrant, is offered for sale or pledge,
there must be some specific goods to which it is a title. If there
were not, it would be a fraud, and an indictable offence. Every
person, therefore, who buys or takes such an instrument in pledge,
knows that he has acquired a title to certain specific goods.
Buying the document is only a convenient way of buying the
goods themselves.
In this case, therefore, there is no exchange, and, therefore, no
act of commerce or Economic phenomenon. These documents
have no value in themselves ; /.*., they cannot be bought and sold
separately from the goods themselves. No one ever spoke of the
Value of a Bill of Lading, or a Dock Warrant. Such documents
are not Credit, because the owner does not simply believe that he
can get goods in exchange for them ; he knows that he has acquired
the property in certain specific goods. These Paper Documents
are, therefore, nothing in themselves; they are no addition to the
general mass of Exchangeable Quantities ; they are no part of the
Circulating Medium, or Currency; and they do not affect prices
in any way.
In a similar way, when a person mortgages his house or land, he
actually sells the house or land to the mortgagee. The Mortgage
Deed is the deed of sale, and is the title to the house or land, and
cannot be separated from them.
Hence, all these documents, Bills of Lading, Dock Warrants,
Pawnbrokers' Tickets, Bills of Sale, Mortgage Deeds, &c, belong
to the class of Jura in re, and are Real Rights, or Corporeal
Property.
Bills of Lading and Dock Warrants circulate in commerce equally
with Bank Notes and Bills of Exchange, but they circulate in a
totally different way. Bills of Lading and Dock Warrants always
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196 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
travel along with the goods they represent, and if they are trans-
ferred any number of times, it shows that the goods have been
transferred that number of times. But Bills of Exchange and Bank-
notes are exchanged against goods like money, and if they are
transferred any number of times, they circulate an equal amount of
goods to themselves at each transfer.
Moreover, the law affecting the transfer of these documents is
different. All Rights to demand Money follow the law of Money;
*>., when they have once been passed away to an innocent holder in
commerce, he has acquired a good title to them, and the original
owner has lost his Jus vindicandi.
But Bills of Lading and Dock Warrants, being in fact identical
with the goods, follow the law of goods. If they have been stolen,
and sold or pledged, the owner retains his Jus vindicandi, and the
person who has bought them, or taken them in pledge, however
honestly, must render them up to the true owner.
Hence, it will be seen that it is a vital economical error to con-
found the distinction between Bank-notes or Bills of Exchange, and
Bills of Lading and Dock Warrants.
3. The third class of Paper Documents, termed Drafts, or Orders
for the Payment of Money, also arise out of a Bailment ; but we
have treated of them in a separate section (Draft).
BALANCE OF TRADE.
The doctrine of the Balance of Trade exercised such a powerful
influence over legislation and national fortunes for two centuries,
and its overthrow, together with the catastrophe of Law's system of
Paper Money, or the Mississippi scheme, were the causes from
which the science of Economics originated in modern times, that
we must explain the phrase.
The expression Balance of Trade is a pregnant example of
Bacon's aphorism that the fallacies of language are the most
troublesome of all, and of the extreme difficulty of eradicating
those which have some portion of truth in them. It is also a
conclusive reply to those persons who think that the meaning of
words is of no consequence in Economics.
As this error, however extensively it prevailed in former times, is
almost exploded now, we do not care to decide where it arose.
England, France, and Italy all contend for the honour of the cap
and bells; nor is it worth while to settle the priority of folly,
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B.] Balance of Trade 197
though Spain may probably be really entitled to it In the conquest
of the New World, gold was the chief object of their ambition, and
their new acquisitions were estimated chiefly as they were capable
of producing the precious metals. The object of all trade was to
acquire the precious metals, and the profits of commerce were
estimated just as they brought in gold and silver.
As gold and silver only were reckoned as Wealth, because they
outlasted everything else, and other commodities as nothing,
because for the most part they perished in more or less time, the
idea very naturally grew up that what one side gained the other lost
Montaigne was one of the first to formulate this unhappy doctrine,
and for a long period it was believed in by the most eminent states-
men. Bacon even believed in it.
Having, then, adopted the dogma that gold and silver only are
Wealth, and that what one side gained the other lost, they estimated
the gain and loss to a country in this way. They said that if the
exports of a country exceeded the imports in value, the balance
must be received in money; and that if the imports exceeded
the exports in value, the balance must be paid in money. The
difference in value between the exports and the imports was called
the Balance of Trade, which it was assumed must be paid in
money ; and the trade of the country was held to be favourable or
the reverse, according as the Balance of Trade was for it or against
it That is, the Profit was held to consist in the quantity by which
the Value of the exports exceeded the Value of the imports, and
the Loss was held to consist in the quantity by which the Value of
the imports exceeded the Value of the exports.
Let us take a very simple example of the rudest description of
trading, which will illustrate the point as well as the most elaborate.
When our ships first traded to the South Sea Islands, they took
out with them axes, beads, and other trifles, which were of very
little value in this country, and bartered them for all sorts of
curiosities, such as shells, &c, which were very valuable in England.
A pair of fine shells from the South Sea Islands, in many cases, is
worth ten guineas in England, which, perhaps, an English sailor
obtained in exchange for an axe which cost half-a-crown in England.
The English sailors, perhaps, thought the natives very simple to
give away so many valuable curiosities for such common things.
We cannot doubt that the natives had exactly the same opinion of
the English sailors; they thought them very simple to give away
such valuable things as axes, beads, &c, for such common things as
a few shells. Each party, however, exchanged what was common
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198 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
and cheap in his own country for what was scarce and valuable.
The axes were many times more valuable in Fiji than the shells;
the shells were many times more valuable in England than the
axes. Thus an English sailor, by giving away what, perhaps, cost
half-a-crown, gained what was worth ten guineas in London, and
the difference was his profit And thus both parties gained by the
exchange. And this is the genuine spirit of commerce. This
simple transaction is a type of all commerce. The value of the
shells in London arises from the desire of the people to possess
them, and their scarcity. The value of the axes in Fiji arose from
the desire of the people to possess them, and their scarcity. The
coloured beads were just as valuable to the poor untutored savages
as precious stones are to civilised Europeans. The commerce of all
nations is exactly similar in principle to that between the sailors
and the savages. It all consists in exchanging things which are
comparatively cheap and common in two countries, for what is
dear and scarce in them reciprocally. And, of course, both parties
must gain by the very nature of the transaction.
But according to the old doctrine of the Balance of Trade,
England, having exported an axe worth half-a-crown, and having
imported shells worth ten guineas, still owed the balance, which
required to be paid in gold !
We observe, from this simple example, that the profit is measured
by the excess of the value of the imports over that of the value of
the exports, because the imports were the payment for the exports ;
and as all the expenses of conveying the exports to the foreign
country, and of bringing the imports from the foreign country, must
come out of the difference, and as there must be, in addition, the
merchant's profit, the value of the imports must considerably exceed
the value of the exports, if the commerce is to be carried on.
The supporters of the Mercantile System quite overlooked the
fact that the imports were, in general, the payment of the exports,
and, therefore, the profits were the greater by just so much as the
value of the imports exceeded the value of the exports.
In the simple case of exchange described above, both sides
gained. But it is evident that this process could not go on
indefinitely; because, if too many shells were imported into
England, their value would diminish so much that it would cease
to defray the cost of the trade. So if too many axes were imported
into Fiji, their value would fall so much that they would not be
able to buy shells enough to defray the cost of the traffic, and
then, of course, the traffic would cease.
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B.] Balance of Trade 199
As a general rule, therefore, both sides must gain in commerce.
For why should anyone voluntarily continue to make exchanges to
his own loss? No doubt there may be individual cases where
traders are unfortunate and make losses. But as a general rule
while commerce goes on, the necessary inference is that it is
mutually profitable, and when profit ceases commerce must cease.
It is clear, therefore, that the real truth is the exact reverse of the
doctrine of the Balance of Trade.
For more than two hundred years this extraordinary delusion kept
possession of the minds of nations, and all commerce between them
was reduced to a general scramble to obtain possession of the
greatest amount of gold and silver. Every effort was made by war
and legislation to obtain money, and nothing but money. Every-
thing was sacrificed to the endeavour to force foreign trade.
Exportation was encouraged in every way, and importation was
discouraged and impeded. Each nation supposed that it was
benefited by and interested in the destruction of its neighbours.
Montaigne and Bacon repeated the doctrine that the gain of one
must be the loss of the other. Even Voltaire repeated this fatal dogma,
J. B. Say says that in the space of two hundred years, during
which Statesmen were blinded with this horrible delusion, no less
than fifty years were spent in commercial wars directly arising out
of this stupendous folly. Fifty years of war, with all its horrors,
waged for a chimera — a pure fiction — a thing which had actually no
existence at all. Do we not say truly that true views in Economics
are of the utmost importance to mankind? True Economics tinned
the light of science on a single expression, and the result was to
destroy for ever a fallacy which let loose upon the earth the demon
of war for fifty years 1
The overthrow of this fatal fallacy was due to the Economists,
who laid the foundations of modern Economics. Nevertheless,
they only achieved half the truth.
They maintained that in an exchange neither side gained or lost.
Adam Smith completed the work by his immortal demonstration
that both sides gain in an exchange, although that clear-sighted
Economist, Boisguillebert, in the beginning of the century, main-
tained the same truth. But this was merely a passing observation,
and attracted no attention.
By this single demonstration Adam Smith revolutionised the
ideas and policy of nations, and showed that instead of injuring
and destroying each other, it was their true policy to promote and
encourage each other's prosperity.
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200 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
BANK.
We have now to explain the meaning of the word Bank, as great
misconception prevails regarding it
If we take up the most common works on Banking, such as
Gilbart on Banking, we find it stated that the word Bank comes
from the Italian banco, which means a bench, because it is alleged
that the Italian money-dealers, or money-changers, kept their money
on a bench, or counter, whence they were said to have been called
Banchieri.
This notion, however, is entirely erroneous.
The Italian money-changers, as such, were never called Banchieri
in the middle ages, nor are persons whose sole business is money-
changing ever called Bankers in any language.
So long as they confined their business to money-changing and
money-lending they were called Cambiatores, Cambitorcs, Campsorcs,
Speaarii, Argentarii, Nummularis Trapezitae, Danistae% Collybistae,
and Mutuatores; and their places of business were called Casane,
and not BanchL
At one time there was considerable discussion in Italy as to the
origin of the word Banco. Many writers maintained that it came
from abacus, a calculating machine. But Muratori entirely dis-
approves of such a derivation. He says {Antiq. Ital. Med. ASvi.
vol. ii. p. 1 148) : "To me, on the contrary, the word seems to have
come from the German word Banck, which was a very ancient
word in that language"; and he says that the word was first used
for a store of goods in the town of Brescia.
Ducange also says {Med. et Infim. Lai. Lex., s.v. Bancus): "Bank
is of Fianco-German or Saxon origin ; no other is to be sought for."
There is no doubt whatever that these learned authors are right.
The word Banck in German has two meanings :
1. A heap, or mound, like a sandbank ; hence a store, like the
goods in a shop.
2. A bench, or a seat ; because the surface of a sandbank was
usually smooth and level
Many writers, who are not acquainted with the technicalities of
business, suppose that the word Bank comes from the second of
these meanings, because they suppose that the banco was the counter
upon which the money-changers kept their money.
But the technical meaning of the word Banking, and the in-
variable meaning of the word as used by the Italian Economists, and
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B.] Bank 20 1
the universal meaning given to the word when it was first intro~
•duced into English, conclusively prove that the preceding opinion is
•erroneous, and that, as a technical term in commerce, it is derived
from the first of the meanings given above, i.e. a mound, or heap.
The word Bank originated in this way :
The Roman State made it a cardinal maxim of their policy not
to carry on more than one war at a time. In 1171 the City of
Venice was at war both with the Empires of the East and the West.
Its finances were in a state of great disorder, and the Great Council
levied a forced loan of 1 per cent on all the property of the citizens,
and promised them interest at the rate of 5 per cent Commis-
sioners were appointed to manage the loan, who were called the
Camera degli Imprestitu Such a loan has several names in Italian,
such as Compera, Mutuo, &c ; but the most usual name is Monte,
a joint stock fund. This first loan was called the Monte Vecchio, the
old loan. Subsequently two similar loans were contracted, and
•called the Monte Nuovo and Monte Nuovissimo. In exchange for
the money, which became the absolute property of the Government,
to be employed for public purposes, the citizens received Stock
Certificates9 or Credits, which they might transfer to anyone
else ; and the Commissioners kept an office for the transfer of the
stocks and the payment of the dividends.
At this time the Germans were masters of a great part of Italy,
-and the German word Banck, meaning a heap, or mound, came
to be used synonymously with Monte, and was Italianised into
Banco ; and the public loans were called indifferently Monti, or
BanchL
It was this office — the Chamber of Loans — which multitudes of
writers have supposed was the famous Bank of Venice. But this is
a complete mistake. It was in no sense a Bank in the modern
sense of the word ; it was simply the National Debt Office ; it was
similar to the National Debt Office of the Bank of England ; it was
the origin of the Funding System.
Thus, in the Volpone of Ben Jonson, the scene of which is laid
in Venice, Volpone says :
"I turn no monies in the public Bank."
Meaning, " I do not dabble in the Venetian Funds."
So an English writer, Benbrigge, in 1646, speaks of the "three
Uankes" at Venice, meaning the three public loans, or Monti.
So in Florian and Torriano's Italian Dictionary, published in
1659, it says, " Monte, a standing Bank, or Mount of money, as
they have inrdivers cities of Italy." ^-rrT"77^ — ^
(university
V^P>.UFQHNI*^r
202 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
That the word Banco in Italian means a Public Debt might be
proved by numberless quotations.
Thus a recent writer, Cibrario, says (Economic* Politico, del Media
Evo): "Regarding the Theory of Credit, which I have said was
invented by the Italian cities, it is known that the first Bank, or
Public Debt (il primo Banco, o Debito Pubblico), was erected
in Venice in 117 1. In the thirteenth century paper money is men-
tioned at Milan ; the Credit was paid off. A Monte, or Public
Debt (un Monte, o Debito Pubblico), was founded in Florence
in 1336."
This passage shows that Banco - Monte = a Public Debt
At Genoa, during the wars of the fourteenth century, the Bank of
St. George was formed of the Creditors of the State.
Every Economist in the South of Europe knows that the word
Bank means a Public Debt
Thus the distinguished Spanish Economist Olozaga, speaking of
the Venetian Loans, says (Tratado de Economia Politico, vol i.
p. 10 1): "El Monte Vecchio (Banco Viejo) ... el Monte Nuevo
(Banco Nuevo)."
So in Baretti's Italian Dictionary, 1839, it says: "Monte, a
Bank, where they lend or take money at interest."
So Evelyn (Diary, vol. L p. 10 1) speaks of the Monte di Pieta at
Padua, where there is a continual Bank of Money to assist the poor.
So Blackstone says (vol. i. p. 322, Kerr's edit.): "At Florence in
1344, Government owed ;£6o,ooo, and, being unable to pay it,
formed the principal into an aggregate sum called metaphorically a
Mount, or Bank."
Everyone acquainted with the writings of the Italian Economists
knows perfectly well that they invariably use the words Monti and
Banchi as absolutely synonymous ; and in the reports published by
the Statistical Office of Italy, I have sometimes seen the words used
as synonymous ; but I am informed by my friend Professor Loria,
of the University of Siena, that the word Monte is not now
generally used in Italian for a bank.
This was also the meaning of the word Bank when it was first
introduced into English.
Thus, Bacon says (Essay on Usury) : "Let it be no Bank or
common stock."
So Gerard Malymes says (Lex Mercatoria, Part II. ch. 13):
" Mons Pietatis, or Bank of Charity. In Italy there are Monies
Pietatis; that is to say, Mounts, or Banks of Charity."
Benbrigge, in his Usura Accommodata, 1646, says: "For their
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B.] Bank 203
rescue may be collected Mons Pictatis sive Charitatisy or Banke of
Piety, or Charity, as they of Trent fitly call it."
Also : " For borrowers in trade for their supply a* their occasion
shall require, may be created Mons Negotiationisy or Banke of
Trade."
Tolet says: " Mons fidei, a Banke of Trust, which Clement XII.
instituted at Rome. He that put his money into this Banke was
never to take it out again," for which the lender received 7 per
cent interest, like the subscribers to the original Bank of England
stock. He also speaks of Mons Reeuperationis, or Banke of
Recovery, in which the interest was 12 per cent
The difference between these two, which were Public Debts, was
that the first was a perpetual annuity, and the second a terminable
annuity, in which the higher rate of interest was repayment of the
principal by instalments.
In the time of Cromwell, several proposals were made for erecting
public Banks. Samuel Lambe, a London merchant in 1658, recom-
mending them says : " A Bank is a certain number of sufficient men
of Estates and Credit joined together in Joint Stock, being, as it
were, the general cash keepers, or treasurers, of that place where
they are settled, letting out Imaginary Money (i.e. Credit), at
interest at 2 J or 3 per cent, to tradesmen, or others that agree with
them for the same, and making payment thereof by assignation, and
passing each man's account from one to another with much facility
and ease."
So Francis Cradocke, a London merchant, who was appointed a
member of the Board of Trade by Charles II., strongly advocated
the introduction of Banks into England, and says : " A Banke is a
certain number of sufficient men of Credit, joined together in a
stock, as it were, for keeping several men's cash in one Treasury,
and letting out Imaginary Money (t\e. Credit), at interest for three
or more in the hundred per annum, to tradesmen or others that
agree with them for the same, and making payment thereof by
assignation, passingjeach man's account from one to another, yet
paying little money." And he says that "the aforesaid bankers
may furnish another petty Bank (or Mount) of Charity."
Thus these writers perfectly well understood the nature and con-
stitution of a Bank. They knew well that the function of a Bank
is to advance Imaginary Money— or Credit — and not Metallic
Money, as is the popular delusion of the present day.
In a little tract entitled A Discourse Concerning Banks> and
supposed to be by a Director of the Bank of England, it says,
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204 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
" There are three kinds of Banks : the first for the mere deposit
of Money [like those of Venice, Amsterdam, Hamburg, &c] ; the
second for Profit The Banks of the second kind, called, in Italy,
Monti ['.£, Public Debts], which are for the benefit of the income
only, are the Banks of Rome, Bolonia, and Milan. These Banks
were made up of a number of persons who, in time of war, or other
exigencies of State, advanced sums of money upon funds granted in
perpetuum, but redeemable. . . . The third kind of Banks, which
are both for the convenience of the public and the advantage of
the undertakers, are the several Banks of Naples, the Bank of
St George at Genoa, and one of the Banks of Bolonia. These
Banks, having advanced sums of money at their establishment,
did not only agree for a fund of perpetual interest, but were
allowed the privilege of keeping cash."
The Bank of England was of this last kind. It was a company
of persons who advanced a sum of money to the Government, and
received, in exchange for it, a perpetual annuity, or a Right to
receive for ever a series of annual payments from the State. This
annuity is, in legal phrase, termed a Bank Annuity — in popular
language, the Funds.
There has only been one instance, in this country, of a Bank
which did not receive cash from the public Some time after the
foundation of the Bank of England, a company of persons united
to advance a million to the Government. They were incorporated
as the " Million Bank." This company existed till nearly the end
of the last century, and thus it resembled the original Bank of
Venice.
Thus, from these passages — and many more might be cited, if
necessary — it is perfectly clear that the word Bank, as a term
in commerce, is the equivalent of Monte, and it meant a joint-
stock fund, contributed by a number of persons.
So when the word Bank was introduced into our American
colonies, before the Revolutionary War, Professor Sumner says
(History of American Currency, p. 6, n.), "Bank, as the word was
used before the Revolutionary War, meant only a batch of Paper
Money, issued either by the Government, or a Corporation. The
impression seems to have remained popular, that the essential idea
of a 'Bank' is the issuing of Notes. . . . The notes issued in
'Banks,' or masses, as Loans, were pure Paper Money."
So in a valuable history of the Notes issued in the United States
(United States Notes. By John Gay Knox, late Comptroller of the
Currency , 1885), it says that an issue of Paper Money to the
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B.] Banking 205
amount of ^50,000, authorised to be issued by the Treasury, was
styled a "Bank."
The essential feature of all these " Banks * was this : the sub-
scribers advanced the money as a Loan, or Mutuum; it thus
became the actual property of the borrowers, and in exchange for
their Money the lenders received a Credit, ie. a certificate, or
promise to pay interest, which they might transfer to anyone else.
And those persons whose business it was to trade like these
Banks, i.e. to buy money, and in exchange for it to issue Credit of
various sorts, were termed Bankers, and only those.
Thus, as a technical term in business, to "Bank" means to
issue Credit
BANKING.
The nature of Banking is entirely misunderstood and misrepre-
sented in the common books on the subject.
Gilbart says {Principles of Banking, p. 1) :• " A banker is a dealer
in Capital, or, more properly, a dealer in Money. He is an inter-
mediate party between the borrower and the lender. He borrows
of one party and lends to another ; and the difference between the
terms at which he borrows, and those at which he lends, forms the
source of his profit."
So a Report of the House of Commons {an Commercial Distress,
1858) says : "The use of Money, and that only, they regard as the
province of a Bank, whether of a private person or incorporation, or
the Banking Department of the Bank of England."
Notwithstanding the apparently high authority of these passages,
which have misled so many unwary persons, these descriptions of
the nature of the business of Banking are entirely erroneous.
There can be no more striking instance of Bacon's Idola fori, or
Fallacies of Common Discourse, than this description of Banking.
Some years ago I gave some lectures on Credit and Banking at the
request of the Council of the Institute of Bankers in Scotland, and
I observed that I never knew a banker yet who could describe his
own business.
In former times, there were many persons who acted as inter-
mediaries between persons who wanted to lend and those who
wanted to borrow. They were called Money Scriveners. The
father of John Milton was a Money Scrivener. But no one ever
called a Money Scrivener a Banker.
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2o6 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
At the present day, many firms of solicitors act as intermediaries
between persons who wish to lend and others who want to borrow.
They may have some clients who wish to lend, and other clients
who wish to borrow, and they act as agents between them. The
first set of clients may entrust their money to the firm to lend to the
second set; and the solicitors receive a commission on the sums
which pass through their hands.
But no one ever called a firm of solicitors who transact such
business " Bankers," which shows that there is an essential dis-
tinction between the business of Money Scriveners, and of such a
firm of solicitors, and the business of " Bankers."
Solicitors who transact such agency business do not acquire any
Property in the money which passes through their hands. They
receive it merely as a Depositum or Bailment They are only
the custodians, or the Trustees, of the money; and it is only
entrusted to their custody for the express purpose of being
applied in a certain way. The actual property in the money
passes directly from the lender to the borrower, through the
medium of the Trustees, or Bailees ; and if the latter appropriated
the money, in any way, to.their own purposes, it would be a felony,
and they would be liable to be punished for embezzlement, as there
have been too many melancholy instances.
But the case of a Banker is wholly different When his
customers pay in money to their account, they cede the Property
in the money to the Banker. The money placed with him is not
a Depositum, or a Bailment, it is a Mutuum, or a Creditum ;
it is a "loan," or sale, of the money directly to himself. The
banker is not the Trustee, or Bailee, of the money, but it is his
actual Property. He may trade with it, or employ it in any
way he pleases, for his own profit or advantage. The banker buys
the money from his customer, and in exchange for it he gives his
customer a Credit in his books, which is simply a Right of Action
to demand back an equivalent amount of money from his banker,
at any time he pleases, and the customer may transfer this Right of
Action to anyone he pleases, just like so much money. Thus a
"banker" is a person who acts in the same? way as those States
did who contracted a Banco or Monte, or Public Debt ; the money
they raised became their own property, and in exchange for it they
granted the subscribers Credits, or Rights, to demand periodical
payments of interest for it
When the client of a solicitor entrusts money to him to lend
to someone else, he retains the Property in it until the arrangement
Digits
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B.] Banking 207
with the borrower is completed. The Property in the money is
then transferred directly from the lender to the borrower, without
in any way vesting in the solicitor. But when a customer pays in
money to his bankers, the Property in it, instantly and ipso facto,
vests in the banker, and the customer has nothing but a Right of
Action against the Person of the banker to demand back an
equivalent sum. So long as the money remains in the possession
of the customer, it is a Jus in rem ; but when he has paid it into
his account, he has nothing but a Jus in personam.
Galiani says (Delia Moneta, p. 323), "Banks began when men
saw from experience that there was not sufficient money in specie
for great commerce and great enterprises.
"The first Banks were in the hands of private persons, with
whom persons deposited money, and from whom they received
Bills of Credit {fedi di credito\ and who were governed by the
same rules as the Public Banks now are. And thus the Italians
have been not only the fathers and the masters and the arbiters
of commerce; so that, in all Europe, they have been the de-
positaries of money, and are called Bankers.11
So Genovesi says (Delle Lezioni di Economia Civile, part ii.
cn* 5 §5)> "These Monti were first administered with scrupulous
fidelity, as were all human institutions made in the heat of virtue.
From which it came to pass that many placed their money on
deposit, and, as a security, received Paper, which was called,
and is still called, Bills of Credit
" Thus private Banks (Banchi) were established among us, whose
Bills of Credit acquired a great circulation, and increased the
quantity of signs, and the velocity of commerce.,,
And this was always recognised as the essential feature of
"Banking."
Thus Marquardus says (Dejure Mercatorum, Lib. ii. ch. 12, § 13) :
"And by 'Banking' is meant a certain species of trading in
money, under the sanction of public authority, in which money is
placed with bankers (who are also cashiers and depositaries of
money) for the security of Creditors, and the convenience of Debtors,
in such a way that fXe Property in the money passes to them, but
always with the condition understood, that anyone who places his
money with them may have it back whenever he pleases."
A " Banker " is, therefore, a person who trades va the same way
that the Public Banks did. They acquired the Property in the
money paid in, and in exchange for it they gave Bills of Credit,
which circulated in commerce exactly like money, and produced all
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208 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Big IL
the effects of money. And, moreover, when they bought, or
discounted, Bills of Exchange, they did it exactly in the same way
— they bought them by issuing their own Credit, and not with
Money. And experience showed that they might multiply their
Bills of Credit several times, exceeding the quantity of money they
held, and thus, for all practical purposes, multiply the quantity of
Money in circulation.
Thus the essential business of a "banker" is to create and
issue Credit to circulate as Money.
In the neighbourhood of the Royal Exchange, many firms
announce themselves as " Money Changers and Foreign Bankers."
Thus they show that they know that Money Changing is not
" Banking." By Foreign Bankers they mean that, in exchange for
Money, they will give their customers Bills of Credit on their
foreign correspondents.
The following is the true definition of a " Banker " :
"A Banker is a Trader who buys Money and Credits, Debts, or
Rights of Action, payable at a future time by creating and issuing
Credits, Debts, or Rights of Action, payable on demand^ as will be
explained more fully shortly.
The issuing of Bills is so essentially the essence of " Banking,"
that Lord Overstone and Mr. Norman even termed the issue
of Bills of Exchange by merchants "banking expedients" and
"banking operations."
The Mechanism of Banking.
We must now explain how a Banker makes a profit by the money
his Customers sell to him.
Suppose that customers pay in ^£i 0,000 to their accounts, they
cede the absolute property in the money to the banker. It is a
Mutuum, or Creditum. The banker buys the Money from his
customers, and in exchange for it he gives them an equal amount
of Credit in his books ; that is, he creates Rights of Action against
himself to an equal amount, giving his customers the right to
demand back an equal amount of money at any time they please,
and also the right to transfer their Rights of Action to anyone else
they please, exactly as if they were money ; and the banker agrees
to pay the Transferee the same as his own customer.
This Right of Action, Credit, or Debt, entered in the banker's
books, is, in banking language, technically termed a Deposit
(Deposit).
Digits
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B.] Banking 209
After such an operation, his accounts would stand thus :
LIABILITIES. I ASSETS.
Deposits . . . ;£io,ooo | Cash . . . ^10,000
Now, though his customers have Rights of Action against the
banker to demand an exactly equal sum of money to what they
have paid in, yet persons would not pay money to their banker if
they meant to draw it out immediately, just as no one would spend
all the money he has at once.
Nevertheless, some will want to draw out part of their funds;
but if some customers want to draw out money, others will,
probably, pay in about an equal sum. Observation shows that in
ordinary and quiet times a banker's balance will seldom differ by
more than one thirty-sixth part from day to day.
The banker's cash is, therefore, like a column of gold with a
slight ripple on the surface; and if he retains ^1000 in cash to
meet any demands which may be made upon him, he has ^9000
to trade with and make a profit by, and it is just in the method in
which bankers trade that so much misconception exists.
It is commonly supposed that when a banker has the ^9000 to
trade with, he employs it in purchasing Bills of Exchange to that
amount, and that he receives a profit only on the ^9000 ; but that
is a complete misconception of the nature of Banking.
A "Banker" never buys Bills of Exchange with Money ; that is
the business of a bill-discounter, or a money-lender.
The way in which a "banker" trades is this. He sees that
^1000 in cash is sufficient to support ^10,000 of liabilities in
Credit, consequently he argues that ^10,000 in cash will bear
liabilities to several times that amount in Credit.
One of the most eligible methods of trading for a banker is to
buy, or discount, good commercial bills. And he buys these bills
exactly in the same way as he bought the Cash ; that is, by creating
Credits in his books, or Debts, or Rights of Action against himself
to the amount of the bills, at the same time deducting the Interest,
or Profit, agreed upon, which is called the Discount
A "banker," therefore, invariably buys a Bill of Exchange with
his own Credit, and never with cash — exactly in the same way as
he bought the cash. That is, he buys a Right of Action, payable
at a future time, by creating and issuing a Right of Action, payable
on demand ; and this Right of Action, or Credit, is also, in banking
language, termed a Deposit, as the Right of Action created and
issued to buy the cash.
p
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210
Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Suppose that the banker buys ^£40,000 of Bills of Exchange at
three months, and that the agreed upon profit is 4 per cent, then
the sum to be retained on the bills is ^400. Consequently, in
exchange for bills to the amount of ,£40,000, he would create and
issue Credits, Debts, or Rights of Action — technically termed
Deposits — to the amount of ,£39,600.
Hence, just after discounting these bills, and before his customers
began to operate upon them, his accounts would stand thus :
LIABILITIES.
Deposits . . . £49,600
ASSETS.
Cash . £10,000
Bills of Exchange . ^40,000
£50,000
^400
Balance of Profit
the balance of £400 being his own Property, or Profit.
By this process, the "banker" has added £39,600, in Credit,
to the previously-existing cash, and his profit is clear; he has not
gained £400 on the £9000 in cash, but 4 per cent, on the
£40,000 of bills he has bought
This is what the business of banking essentially consists in,
and thus the correctness of the definition of a "banker" given
above is manifest.
Thus a banker does not make advances out of his Deposits, as
is so commonly supposed ; but he makes all advances by creating
Deposits.
Thus the error of Gilbart's allegation is also seen, that his profits
consist in the difference between the interest he pays for the money
he borrows, and the interest he charges on the money he lends.
His profits depend upon the amount of Credit he can maintain
in circulation in excess of the cash he holds in reserve.
Thus we see that the very nature and essence of a Bank and
Banker is to create and issue Credit, payable on demand; and
this Credit is intended to circulate, and perform all the functions
of Money.
A Bank is, therefore, not an office for "borrowing" and
"lending" Money, but it is a Manufactory of Credit As
Mr. Cazenove well said, "It is the Banking Credits which
are the Loanable Capital; and, as Bishop Berkeley said, "A
Bank is a Gold Mine."
It is usual to speak of the Money Market, and people suppose
that Money is lent; but this is wholly erroneous, it should be
called the Credit Market
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On the Legal Relation between Banker and Customer.
It must be carefully observed that the Legal Relation between
Banker and Customer is simply that of Debtor and Creditor*
When a customer pays in money to his account with his banker,
he cedes the absolute property in the money to the banker, and
receives in exchange for it a Right of Action, or Credit, or Debt,
to demand an equivalent sum of money, at any time he pleases,
but not the identical money.
In speaking of banking, it is too often implied that the money
placed with the banker still belongs to the customer. But this
was decisively refuted by Lord Cottenham, in Foley v. Hill,
2 H.L cas. 28*
It must, therefore, be carefully observed that a banker in no
way resembles the treasurer of a public fund, or a solicitor, or a
money scrivener, who are only trustees, or bailees, of the money
placed with them by their clients. If a banker were the mere
trustee of the money placed with him, he would have no right to
use it for his own profit
Persons often say that they have so much money at their
banker's; but such an expression is wholly misleading and
erroneous. They have no money at their banker's. They have
nothing but an abstract Right of Action to demand so much
money from their banker, which Right of Action, being exchange-
able for money on demand, is of the value of money.
Another consequence of this relation is, that a Cheque is a Bill
of Exchange, and not a Draft It is an order addressed by a
Creditor to his Debtor, and not one addressed by a person to his
trustee, or bailee. To call a Cheque a Draft is to mistake the
relation between Banker and Customer.
On the Method of Utilising Banking Credits,
The banker, then, having issued these Credits, Deposits, or
Rights of Action against himself, to his customers, they cannot,
of course, transfer them by manual delivery, in that form, to
anyone else. In order to be capable of manual delivery, they
must be recorded on some material, such as paper.
And this might be done in two forms : —
1. The banker might give his customer his own Promissory
Notes, promising to pay a certain sum to his customer, or to his
order, or to bearer, on demand.
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212 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
2. The customer might write a Note to his banker, directing
him to pay a certain sum to a certain person, or to his order, or
to bearer, on demand. These orders were formerly called Cash
Notes, but they are now termed Cheques.
These paper documents do not create new liabilities; they
merely record on paper, the Credits, Debts, or Deposits which
have already been created in the banker's books, and their sole
use is to transfer these Rights of Action to other persons.
There is one juridical distinction between Bank-notes and
Cheques. A Bank-note is the absolute obligation of the banker
to pay it; a Cheque is only the contingent obligation of the
banker to pay it, provided that the customer has funds on his
account to meet it. If he has, the obligation of the banker is
absolute. The holder of a Cheque, with funds to meet it on the
drawer's account, has the same Right of Action against the banker
as upon one of his own Notes. So far as regards Economics,
Bank-notes and Cheques are absolutely identical. They are both
equally Circulating Medium, or Currency.
When, therefore, a banker has created a Credit, or Deposit, in
favour of his customer, he can put this Credit into circulation either
by means of the banker's own Note, or by means of his Cheque ;
and when he does so, the following different results may take
place:
i. The customer himself, or the holder of the Note, or Cheque,
may demand payment of it : if they do so, the banker's liability is
extinguished. It is a resale of money to the holder of the Note, or
Cheque, and the banker buys up the Right of Action against
himself.
2. The Note, or Cheque, may circulate in commerce, and effect
any number of transfers of commodities, or payments, exactly like
an equal sum of money ; and it may ultimately fall into the hands
of a customer of the same bank, who pays it into his own account,
and the whole series of transactions is finally closed by the mere
transfer of Credit from the account of the drawer to that of the
holder, without the necessity of any coin.
3. The Note, or Cheque, may, after performing a similar series of
operations, fall into the hands of a customer of another bank ; so
the banker becomes debtor to the customer of another bank.
But if the bank A becomes debtor to the customers of bank B,
the chances are that about an equal number of the customers of
bank A will have about equal claims against bank B; and so on
among any number of banks. If the mutual claims of the customers
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B.] Banking 213
of each bank are exactly equal, the respective documents are inter-
changed, and the Credits are readjusted among the accounts of the
different customers without any payment in money. Thus, if the
mutual claims among any number of bankers exactly balanced, any
amount of Credits, however large, might be settled without the use
of a single coin.
Formerly, if the mutual claims did not balance, the differences
only used to be paid in Money or Bank-notes. But now, by the
ingenious arrangements of the Clearing House, described elsewhere,
the use of Coin and Bank-notes is entirely dispensed with ; and all
the banks which join in the clearing are really and practically
formed into one huge banking institution, for the purpose of trans-
ferring Credits among each other, just as Credits are transferred
from one account to another in the same bank, without a single Coin
or Bank-note being required.
Error of the Common Description of Banking.
From the preceding account of the actual mechanism of Banking,
it will be seen what a complete misconception of its nature it is to
say that bankers are merely agents, or intermediaries, between
persons who wish to lend and those who wish to borrow.
This is entirely untrue in the ordinary sense of "lending" and
"borrowing," because, in the ordinary sense of "lending," the
" lender " deprives himself of the use of the thing " lent."
But when a person pays in money to his banker, he has no inten-
tion of depriving himself of the use of it On the contrary, he
means to have the same free command of it as if he had it in his
own house. The customer, therefore, "lends" his money to his
banker, but at the same time has the free use of it. The banker
employs that money in promoting trade. Upon the strength of
having acquired it, he buys Debts with his promises to pay several
times exceeding the amount of money he possesses; and the
persons who sell him their Debts have the free use of the very same
com, which the lenders have the very same right to demand. Thus
the "lenders" and the "borrowers" have the same rights to demand
the same coin at the same time. And all banking depends on the
calculation that only a certain portion of each set of customers will
demand the actual cash, but that the majority will be satisfied with
the mere promise to pay, or the Credit
The whole of this mystery and confusion is cleared away by
simply observing that a Bank is merely a shop for the sale of
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214 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Credit; and the quantity of Credit which a Bank can create is
determined by the ratio of the demand for payment in money
compared to the total quantity of Credit created.
Banking entirely depends on the doctrine of chances; it is a
species of insurance ; it is practically possible that a banker may be
called upon to pay all his liabilities on demand at once ; just as it is
theoretically possible that all the lives insured in an office may drop
at the same instant, and it is theoretically possible that all the
houses insured in an office may be burned down at the same
instant
A large and sudden demand for money on a bank is termed a
Run, and a Run upon a Bank is analogous to a pestilence, or a
conflagration, to an Insurance Office. But all Insurance and
Banking is based upon the expectation that these contingencies will
not happen. A banker multiplies his liabilities to pay on demand,
and keeps by him a sufficient amount of cash to insure the imme-
diate payment of all claims which are likely to be demanded at one
time. If pressure comes upon him, he must sell some of the
securities he has bought, or borrow money on them.
Contrast between the Common Notions about Banking and the
Reality.
Having now given an exposition of the actual facts and mechanism
of Banking, it will be as well to contrast the Common Notions
respecting it and the Reality.
I. It is commonly supposed that Bankers are dealers in Money
only — that they borrow Money from one set of persons and lend it
to another set of persons.
The fact is that Bankers are not dealers in Money; they never
lend Money. The sole function of a Banker is to create and issue
Credit, and to buy Money and Debts by creating and issuing other
Debts in exchange for them.
II. It is commonly supposed that Bankers act only as agents, or
intermediaries, between persons who want to lend and those who
want to borrow.
Bankers never act as agents between persons who want to lend
and those who want to borrow. Bankers buy money from some
persons, and Rights of Action from others, exclusively with their
own Credit, or by creating and issuing Rights of Action against
themselves.
III. It is commonly supposed that a Banker's profit consists in
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B.] Banking 215
the difference between the interest he pays for the Money he
borrows and the interest he charges for the Money he lends.
The fact is that a Banker's profit consists exclusively in the profit
he can make by creating and issuing Credit in excess of the specie
he holds in reserve. His whole profit consists in the quantity of
Debts he can purchase with his Credit
How Credit is Capital to a Banker.
It is now seen how Credit is Capital to a Banker.
Capital is any commodity which a trader deals in and makes a
profit by. And what is the commodity which a banker deals in and
makes a profit by? He opens his place of business, and has an
array of clerks with their desks, ledgers, &c. He then gives notice
that he is ready to buy gold from anyone who has it to sell. And
what is the commodity with which he buys the gold, and what does
he give in exchange for it? His own Credit. The commodity he
gives in exchange is a Right of Action to pay an equivalent of gold
on demand, i.e. his own Credit
He then gives notice that he is ready to buy good Commercial
Debts — which are Credits, or Rights of Action — which anyone has
got to sell. And what does he buy these Credits, Debts, or Rights
of Action with? Again with nothing but his own Credit — with
Rights of Action against himself. His own Credit is the commodity
with which he buys these other Credits.
The banker charges exactly the same price for his Credit as if
it were Money. The only commodity the banker has to sell is his
own Credit, for which he charges exactly the same price as if it were
Money. His Credit is, therefore, of exactly the same value to him
as Money. Hence, he makes exactly the same profit by selling
his Credit as if he were selling Money.
Now, as we have seen, Anything which gives a profit is Capital.
Hence, as a banker's Credit produces him exactly the same profit
as Money would, it is evident that his Credit is Capital to him,
just as much as Money is.
Again, Credits, Debts, or Rights of Action, are Goods, Chattels,
Commodities, Merchandise.
Now, under the term Circulating Capital, Smith expressly
includes the Goods, or Commodities, in shops. The trader buys
them at a lower price from one person, and sells them at a higher
price to another person, and so makes a profit by them ; and thus
the goods in the shop are Capital to him.
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216 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Adam Smith expressly includes Bank-notes, or Banking Credits,
and Bills of Exchange, under the term Circulating Capital.
So a banker buys the Goods, or Commodities, termed Credits,
Debts, or Rights of Action, from one person — his own customer —
and sells them at a higher price to another person, namely, the
Acceptor, or Debtor. The Debt the banker buys is increasing in
value every day, from the time he buys it, until it is paid off.
These Goods, or Commodities, termed Debts in the portfolio of
a banker, produce him a profit, just in the same way as the goods,
commodities, or merchandise in the shop produce profits to the
trader.
Hence the Bills in the portfolio of a banker are Circulating
Capital, exactly in the same way as the goods, commodities, or
merchandise in the shop of a trader are Circulating Capital.
On the Economical Effects of Banking.
We have now to observe the Economical effects of Banking.
The business of a Bank is not to borrow Money from one set
of persons to lend to another — it is to build up a superstructure of
Credit on a given basis of bullion, several times exceeding its
amount, which Credit is intended to circulate and produce all the
effects of Money.
And everyone who has understood the mechanism of Banking
has seen that it practically augments the Capital of the country.
Thus John Law, who was, barring his unfortunate and fatal ideas
of issuing Paper Money based upon land, the ablest financier of
his age, says that the Bank of Scotland, on a basis of ;£ 10,000 in
Money, was able to maintain ,£50,000 of its Notes in circulation,
which, he says (Money and Trade Considered)^ was equivalent to so
much additional Money to the country.
He also says (Lettres sur les Banques\ "The introduction of
Credit, by means of a Bank, augments the quantity of Money
more in one year than a prosperous commerce would do in ten " ;
/>., by creating Circulating Credit
So Bishop Berkeley, after proposing many wise queries on Money
and Credit, says that a Bank is a Gold Mine, and asks whether it
is not the true philosopher's stone ?
Adam Smith, who never had the least experience in practical
business, says that a Bank does not increase the Capital of a
country.
But Alexander Hamilton, the celebrated financier of the United
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B.] Banking 217
States, who had infinitely more knowledge of practical business than
Smith, in presenting a Report to Congress on the advantages of
founding a National Bank, says:
" The following are among the advantages of a Bank :
"First, the augmentation of the active or Productive Capital of
a country. ... It is a well-established fact that Banks in good
Credit can circulate a far greater sum than the actual quantum of
their Capital in gold and silver. . . . This faculty is produced in
various ways.
"(1) A great portion of the Notes which are issued and pass
current as Cash are indefinitely suspended in circulation from the
confidence which each holder has that he can, at any moment, turn
them into gold and silver.
"(2) Every loan which a Bank makes is, in its first shape, a
Credit given to the borrower in its books, the amount of which it
stands ready to pay, either in its own Notes, or gold or silver at his
option. But in a great number of cases, no actual payment is made
in either. . . . The same circumstances illustrate the truth of the
position that it is one of the properties of banks to increase the
active Capital of a country. This additional employment given to
Money, and the faculty of a bank to lend and circulate a greater
sum than the amount of coin, are, to all the purposes of trade and
industry, an absolute Increase of Capital. Purchases and under-
takings in general can be carried on by means of Bank Paper, or
Credit, as effectually as by an equal sum of gold and silver. And
thus, by contributing to enlarge the mass of industrious and com-
mercial enterprises, banks became nurseries of national wealth — a
consequence as satisfactorily verified by experience as it is clearly
deducible in theory."
So J. B. Say says : " If Bills of Credit could replace completely
metallic Money, it is evident that a Bank of Circulation veritably
augments the sum of National Wealth, because in this case, the
metallic wealth becoming superfluous as an agent of circulation,
and, nevertheless, preserving its own value, becomes disposable, and
can serve other purposes. But how does that substitution take
place? What are its limits? What classes of society make their
profit of this interest of the new fund added to the Capital of the
nation f
" According as a Bank issues its Notes, and the public consents
to receive them on the same footing as metallic money, the number
of monetary units increases.
"If, suppose, it issues one hundred millions in Notes, it will
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218 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. IU
withdraw, perhaps, forty millions in specie, which it will put in
reserve to meet the payments which may be demanded of it
Therefore, if it adds one hundred millions to the quantity of money
in circulation, and if it withdraws forty millions from circulation, it
is as if it added only sixty millions.
"We wish now to learn what class of society enjoys the use of
this New Capital"
Say then goes on to explain how this New Capital is employed,
and who reaps the benefit of it.
And J. B. Say is the writer who said that those who say that
Credit is Capital, maintain that the same thing can be in two places
at once !
Gilbart says: "Bankers also employ their own Credit as
Capital. They issue Notes promising to pay the bearer on
demand. As long as the public are willing to take these Notes as
gold, they produce the same effects as gold. The banker who
makes advances to the agriculturist, the manufacturer, or the
merchant, in his own Notes, stimulates as much the productive
powers of the country, and provides employment for as many
labourers, as if, by means of the philosopher's stone, he had created
an equal amount of solid gold. It is this feature of our banking
system that has been most frequently assailed. It has been called
a system of fictitious Credit — a raising the wind— a system of
bubbles. Call it what you please, we will not quarrel with names ;
but by whatever name you please to call it, it is a powerful instru-
ment of production. If it be on a fictitious system, its effects are
not fictitious, for it leads to the feeding, the clothing, and the
employing of a numerous population. If it be a raising of the
wind, it is the wind of commerce, that bears to distant markets
the produce of our soil, and wafts to our shores the productions of
every climate. If it be a system of bubbles, they are bubbles
which, like those of steam, move the mighty engines that promote a
nation's greatness and a nation's Wealth."
What Gilbart says about Notes is all true; but he omits to
mention that Banking Credits circulated by means of Cheques have
exactly the same effects as Banking Credits which are circulated by
Notes.
On John Stuart Mill's notions on Banking and Currency.
We are now constrained to examine the dogmas of John Stuart
Mill on Banking and Currency, not from any love of controversy,
which we cordially dislike, but simply because Mill's work is the
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one which is still usually put into the hands of unfortunate students
of Economics.
Mill says (Preliminary Remarks) : " Further consideration showed
that the uses of Money are in no respect promoted by increasing
the quantity which exists and circulates in a country, the service
which it performs being as well rendered by a small as by a large
aggregate amount."
This certainly is somewhat startling doctrine. If only a certain
amount of work could be done, there would be something true in it.
But in almost all countries, is it not possible to develop new work
and new industry by introducing new Capital? According to this
dogma, the introduction of new Capital into a country can do it
no service. But do not facts everywhere rise up in contradiction
to such a dogma ? It is usually supposed that the very thing which
poor countries want is the introduction of new Capital. Of course,
if the introduction of new Capital can do no good, the withdrawal
of Capital can do no harm.
How could the colossal commerce of England be carried on
without the thousands of millions of Credit in the form of Bills
of Exchange, Bank Credits, and Trade Credits? Does any sane
man suppose that the present commerce of England could be
carried on if all the forms of Credit, which every Economist of
repute knows perfectly well is equivalent to an augmentation of
so much money, were annihilated, and nothing but the paltry
amount of gold and silver left?
Has not the prodigious increase of the Wealth of Scotland,
during the last 150 years, been mainly due to the Cash Credits
of the Scotch Banks ? And the same is true, in a lesser degree, of
Ireland. Have not most of the Indian railways been constructed
mainly by the supplies of British Capital poured into the country?
Is not every country in the world clamouring for British Capital?
Even in the United States, have not vast amounts of enterprise
been developed by British Capital? If the Scottish system of
Banking could be gradually and cautiously introduced into
India, it would give a prodigious stimulus to the Wealth of
Iqdia; and, perhaps, even render her independent of British
Capital
Mill again says (Bk. III. ch. 13, §6), " Another of the fallacies
from which the advocates of an inconvertible Paper Currency
derive support, is the notion that an increase of the Currency
quickens industry. The idea was set afloat by Hume, in his essay
on Money, and has had many devoted adherents since.'1
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220 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II-
Have not the prodigious creations of Credit quickened industry
in Scotland and every country ?
Anyone who had the least experience of practical business, and
will study the practical effects of Banking, knows that it is no
fallacy at all that an increase of Capital, either by the introduction
of fresh Money, or by the creation of Credit within legitimate
limits, quickens industry. But, of course, this (Joes not mean
Credit without limit; but Credit created within certain strictly-
defined scientific limits.
Mill's dogmas would certainly not meet with acceptance from
statesmen, nor from practical men of business.
Mill further says (Bk. III. ch. 22, §2), "A banker's profession
being that of a Money-lender, his issue of Notes is simply an
Extension of his ordinary occupation."
We have shown that it is a total misconception of the nature
of the business of Banking to say that it consists in Lending
Money. The business of a banker consists in buying Money
and Debts by creating other Debts, which will exceed several
times the amount of Cash he holds; which may be circulated
either by means of Notes, or Cheques, and are equivalent, in all
respects, to the creation of an equal amount of Money.
Issuing Bank-notes, therefore, is not an extension of a banker's
ordinary business. Formerly, banking was defined to consist in
issuing Notes. In the present day Cheques have, to an immense
extent, superseded Notes. The very essence of Banking is to
create Credit; and whether these Credits are circulated by means
of Notes, or Cheques, in no way alters the nature of Banking, but
is a pure matter of convenience.
Mill then says (Bk. II. ch. 13, § 1): " But if the Paper Currency is
convertible, Coin may still be obtained from the issuers in exchange
for Notes. All additional Notes, therefore, which are attempted to be
forced into circidation after the metals have been completely superseded,
will return upon the issuers in exchange for coin."
He also says (Bk. III. ch. 22, § 3) : " When metallic money had
been entirely superseded, and expelled from circulation by the
substitution of an equal amount of Bank-notes, any attempt to keep
a still further quantity of Paper in circulation must, if the Notes be
convertible, be a complete failure. The metals would, as before, be
required for exportation, and would, for that purpose, be demanded
from the Banks to the full extent of the superfluous Notes, which
thus could not possibly remain in circulation."
The preposterous folly of these dogmas is shown by the fact that
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when the Bank of Scotland was founded, although it was the only
Bank in Scotland, upon a deposit of £10,000 in money by its
shareholders, it was able to maintain ,£50,000 of its Notes in
circulation, which John Law says justly was equivalent to an
augmentation of the money of the country.
At the present day, the English Joint Stock Banks usually keep a
reserve of about one-tenth in cash to support the circulation of their
Credits, and they have about £800,000,000 of Deposits, or Bank
Credits.
But in Scotland, where the system of Credit is more perfectly and
highly organised than in England, the Bankers only find it necessary
to keep cash to the one twenty-second part of their Credits in various
forms. Upon a reserve of cash of about £4,500,000 they maintain
in circulation Credits exceeding £92,000,000.
According to Mill's dogmas, such a state of things would be
impossible ; but all the Credit created in excess of the cash held
would at once return upon the Banks for payment 1 This shows
the folly of men writing books, and setting themselves up as guides
upon matters of which they do not take the least pains to inform
themselves.
Mill then says (Bk. III. ch. 13, § 5) : "The substitution of Paper
for Metallic Currency is a national gain; any further increase of
Paper beyond this is a form of Robbery !
"An issue of Notes is a manifest gain to the issuers, who, until
the Notes are returned for payment, obtain the use of them as if
they were real Capital, and so long as the Notes are no permanent
addition to the Currency, but merely supersede gold or silver to the
same amount, the gain of the issuers is a loss to no one; it is
obtained by saving to the community the expense of the more
costly material. But if there is no gold and silver to be super-
seded— if the Notes are added to the Currency, instead of being
substituted for the metallic portion of it— all holders of Currency
lose by the depreciation of its value the exact equivalent of what the
issuers gain."
Now, how is it possible for a Banker to make a profit by issuing
Notes if he is obliged to keep an exactly equal quantity of gold ?
How, on such a system, is the community saved the cost of the
more costly material? No Bank ever constructed on this principle
ever did, or by any possibility could, make profits.
Now, Mill asserts that for a Banker to create Credit in excess of
the cash he holds is Robbery !
But all profits in Banking are made by creating Credit in
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222 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. IL
excess of cash. Therefore, all profits made in Banking are
Robbery I
Therefore, all Bankers are Robbers I Certainly Mill is an
Economist who ought to be very popular among bankers.
But if it is Robbery for bankers to create Credit in excess of the
gold they hold, it must be equally robbery for merchants to create
Credit in excess of the gold they hold.
Now merchants create Credit, not because they have gold at the
time they create it, but because they expect to be in possession of
gold, or its equivalent, at the time the bill falls due.
We have shown that John Law, Say, Hamilton, Gilbart, and all
persons practically conversant with the mechanism of banking,
declare that a Bank, by maintaining in circulation a quantity of
Credit in excess of the cash it holds, creates for all practical
purposes an augmentation of the Capital of the country.
But Mill declares that it is Robbery I
Such is the beautiful harmony of doctrine among Economists !
BILL OF EXCHANGE.
A written Order from one person to another who owes, or
appears to owe, him money as a Debtor, directing him to pay
absolutely and at all events: (i) a certain sum of money; (2) to a
certain person; (3) at a certain event, is, in modern language,
termed a Bill of Exchange, or shortly a Bill
It is one form of Incorporeal Property ; it is a Jus in personam,
and is termed in law a Valuable Security.
The following is the usual form of a Bill of Exchange :
^£250 : 10 : 6. London, May 4, 1895.
Three months after date pay to A. B., or to myself, or order, the
sum of Two hundred and fifty pounds ten shillings and sixpence, for
value received.
To Mr. John Cox, 993, Strand, London. William Smith.
Bills of Exchange play such an important part in modern
commerce and Economics, and are so little understood by literary
persons who write on Economics, that it is necessary to say some-
what about them.
Bills of Exchange, then, like all other forms of Credit, are mere
abstract Rights of action against a person. They are not titles to
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B.] Bill of Exchange 223
any specific sums of money. It is the fundamental requisite of a
Bill of Exchange that it should not be made payable out of any
particular fund. An order payable out of a specified fund is a Draft
(Draft).
Bills of Exchange, then, like all other forms of Credit, being
purely abstract Rights of Action, are themselves vendible commo-
dities, just like money or any other material chattels. They are
termed Pecunia, Bona, Res, Merx% in Roman Law; xfrl/mTay
wpdyjMTOy dyadd, oticos, oww, &c, in Greek Law ; and Incorporeal
Property, Incorporeal Wealth, merchandise, vendible or marketable
commodities in English Law. And the whole aggregate mass of
Credits in every form have value for exactly the same reason that
anything has value, because they are exchangeable for money.
A whole series of writers have shown that Credits of all forms
are exactly of the same nature, and are only an inferior form of
money (Money). A Credit is a Right of action, or a claim against
some single individual, while money is a general claim on the whole
trading community. Credit, then, in all its forms is an integral and
enormous portion of the Circulating Medium or Currency, and its
effects on circulation and prices are exactly the same as those of an
equal quantity of money.
When a trader has bought goods on Credit, and given a Bill at
three months in exchange for them, the goods become absolutely his
property, just as if he had paid for them in money ; and as it is a
fundamental principle of mercantile law that a person who is only
bound to pay a sum at a future date is not in debt at the present
time, a trader who has bought goods on a three months' Credit is
not in debt till the day of payment has come.
Bills of Exchange, then, being vendible commodities, there are
two classes of traders, bankers and bill discounters, or money
lenders, whose business it is to buy them, and make a profit by so
doing, just as ordinary traders buy goods from merchants or whole-
sale dealers, and make a profit by selling them to their customers.
The Bills of Exchange in the portfolio of a banker are circulating
capital, just in the same way as the goods in the shop of an ordinary
trader are termed, by Adam Smith, circulating capital.
Bills of Exchange then, as well as all other forms of Credit,
are separate and independent entities or merchandise, and are
bought and sold independently, just as any other merchandise is.
It is upon this rock that literary Economists, who are ignorant of
the most elementary principles of Mercantile Law, founder when
they meddle with the subject of Bills of Exchange.
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224 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Thus when a good many years ago I said that Credit may be
used as capital, in accordance with Adam Smith, J. B. Say,
J. S. Mill, and hosts of other writers, Roscher, Rector of the
University of Leipsig, applied several disparaging epithets to me as
superficial, and kindly pointed out to me that Bills of Exchange
could not be independent commodities, because they were merely
titles to a sum of money, which statement of the Rector would
be saluted with rounds of merriment from any junior class of
students in Mercantile Law.
This fundamental error also appears conspicuously in Stanley
Jevons* Investigations in Currency and Finance, p. 31. He says :
"What greatly assists a rise of prices, started in a period of free
investment, is the system of Credit on which trade is necessarily
conducted. By this system a trader is not obliged to be the real
owner of the goods in which he trades [how could he trade in them
if he were not their real owner ?], but may buy freely by giving the
promise of payment in, perhaps, three months' time. Thus the goods
really belong to the holder of his promissory note, or bill . . . Though
the merchant does not own the goods, there must be some one to
own them, to advance capital, or, as it is said, to discount the
bills arising out of the transaction."
That is, Stanley Jevons implies that the goods really belong
to the banker who discounts the bills arising out of their sale. The
fatuity of such a doctrine is patent, and its error was long ago
pointed out by Thornton. Every banker would laugh at such
doctrine, and say that the person who uttered it was not fit to
write on Economics. How could the trader absolutely sell the
goods to other persons if he were not their actual proprietor ? Now
a wholesale trader buys goods and sells them to a multitude of
retail dealers, and these retail dealers sell them to a multitude of
customers. How can the banker, who holds the bills, follow the
goods into the hands of multitudes of customers ? Very probably
the goods have been consumed long before the bills given for them
become due and payable. And how can the banker follow the
goods after they have been annihilated?
Thus the fatuity of the doctrine of Stanley Jevons, and of many
other literary dreamers, is apparent at once.
We have said enough to correct the ordinary blunder made by
literary dreamers, who have no knowledge of the subject they
write about. If any readers are curious about the history and
principles and mechanism of the system of Bills of Exchange,
we may refer them to our Theory of Credit.
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BILL OF LADING.
A Bill of Lading is a/w in rem. When a person ships goods on
board a vessel, the captain gives him a written receipt for the goods,
which is entitled a Bill of Lading. The consignor may send this
Bill of Lading to the consignee, who thereby becomes entitled to
those specific goods. The Bill of Lading may also be transferred
by indorsement any number of times, just like a Bill of Exchange.
The indorsee of the Bill becomes the actual proprietor of the goods
and may sue for them. Several literary Economists, seeing that Bills
of Lading and Bills of Exchange may be transferred by indorsement
exactly in the same way, have considered them as similar in-
struments, and classed them both as Credit. But this is a vital
error. Bills of Lading are titles to specific goods and to no
others. The captain has no property in the goods, he is merely
their bailee or trustee, and all he has to do is to deliver them to
their real owner. Bills of Lading are not Credit. But Bills of
Exchange are not titles to any specific sum of money. They are
merely abstract Rights to demand a sum of money from some
person. They are, therefore, Jura in personam, or Credit.
CAPITAL.
Adam Smith's use of the word Capital strikingly exemplifies the
defect of his definitions.
He enumerates as Capital (1) Material things, (2) Personal
Qualities, (3) Abstract Rights, such as Bank-notes, Bills of
Exchange, &c, which are Credit That is, he enumerates all
the three orders of Economic Quantities as Capital.
But when we are told that all these things are Capital, we have
no more notion of what Capital is than if we were told that they
are all Abracadabra.
We do not want an enumeration of what things are Capital, but
we want a Definition of what Capital is.
The word Capital is derived from the Latin Caput, which means
the source of a spring, or the root of a plant, namely, the source
from which any increase springs.
Thus Horace says, Od. I. 1 : " I^ene caput aquae."
So Plautus says : " O scelerum caput ! " " On, source (or fountain}
of crimes"
Q
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226 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
" Perjurii caput ! " " Oh, fountain of perjury?
Stephen, in his Thesaurus, thus defines the word :
" Kc^xxXatov. Caput unde fructus et reditus manat."
" Capital. The source from which any Profit or Revenue flows?
So Senior says : " Economists are agreed that Whatever gives a
Profit is properly termed Capital."
So de Fontenay says : " Wherever there is a Revenue you perceive
Capital"
This is a good general definition of Capital, and the " Whatever
gives a Profit " must be interpreted in as wide and general a sense
as the " Anything whose Value can be measured in Money " is in
the general definition of Wealth.
The definition of Capital is, therefore, this :
" Capital is any Economic Quantity used so as to produce a
Profit
Any Economic Quantity whatever may be used as Capital.
Aristotle pointed out that any Economic Quantity whatever may
be used in two different ways.
i. The proprietor may use it for his own personal enjoyment
2. He may trade with it, or he may use it so as to produce a
Profit.
When any Economic Quantity whatever is traded with, *>. used
so as to produce a Profit, it is termed Capital.
Economic quantities, it has been shewn, are of three distinct
orders (Wealth): (i) Material Things; (2) Personal Qualities,
both in the form of Labour and Credit ; (3) Abstract Rights.
And each of these Quantities may be used in either of
the above ways.
Material Things used as Capital.
Suppose that a person has a sum of money — if he expends it
on his own personal gratification, or on household expenses, such
Money is not used as Capital, because he makes no profit by it
But if he lends it out at interest, or if he buys goods with it for
the purpose of selling them again at a profit, or if he buys into the
Funds or the Shares of any commercial company, then he uses
his Money as Capital ; and the goods also are Capital, because he
intends to sell them again at a profit; and the Funds and the
Shares also are Capital, because they produce him an annual
revenue.
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So if the owner of land lives on it himself and uses it for his
own personal enjoyment, he does not use the land as Capital.
But if he lets it out to farmers, or to builders to build houses
upon, and receives a Rent for so doing, then he uses the land
as Capital.
Some great noblemen possess large tracts of land, upon which
part of London is built ; that land yields them enormous revenues,
and, therefore, it is Capital to them.
And so any material thing whatever may be used as Capital.
So if a person spends Money merely on a general education, of
which he makes no profitable use, that Money is not used as
Capital
But if he spends his Money in acquiring a professional education,
such as that of a schoolmaster, an advocate, a physician, a surgeon,
or any profession by which he intends to earn an income, then he
uses that Money as Capital
And the professional knowledge which he has acquired is Capital
to him, because he makes an income by trading with it
Personal Qualities used as Capitol.
Personal Qualities may also be used in both ways ; but Personal
Qualities are of two forms. They are of the form (a) of Labour
and (b) of Credit.
Personal Qualities as Labour.— If a man digs in his own
garden for his amusement, or if he sings, acts, or gives lectures for
the delectation of his friends, such Labour is not used as Capital
But if he sells his Labour in any way for Money, then he uses his
Labour as CapitaL
Thus Huskisson said, " He had always maintained that Labour is
the poor man's Capital"
So Mr. Cardwell, speaking to his constituents, said, " Labour is
the poor man's Capital."
So a writer in a daily paper said, "The only Capital they
possess is their Labour, which they must bring into the market
to supply their daily wants."
And speaking of them, the Economist said, "They have no
Capital but their Labour."
So Froude said, in Oceana, " And the land would be within the
reach of poor men, who have no Capital except their Labour."
So his knowledge, skill, and abilities are Capital to anyone who
earns an income as an advocate, physician, actor, engineer, or as
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228 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
manager of a great commercial company, or in any other profession.
His services are wanted, demanded, and paid for by his clients ;
their Value is measured in money; hence they are xpnltJLaTai 01
Wealth; and as he makes an income by their employment, they
are Capital.
This income is measurable and taxable, just as if he made an
income by selling corn, cattle, or any other material chattels.
All modern writers admit that Labour is a marketable com-
modity, which can be bought and sold like any material chattel,
and consequently it is Wealth, as the author of the dialogue
Eryxias was the first to point out; and as a person can sell his
Labour for a profit, and make an income thereby, it may be used
as Capital.
Personal Qualities as Credit — As Mill, expressing the
unanimous doctrine, said, "Everything which has Purchasing
Power is Wealth"; and as Credit is Purchasing Power, it follows
that Credit is Wealth. A merchant's, or a banker's, or a trader's
Purchasing Power is his Money and his Credit; hence, by the
above definition, his Money and his Credit are equally Wealth.
Personal Credit may be used in two ways. If a person buys
goods on Credit for his own enjoyment, as for household use,
such Credit is not used as Capital.
But a merchant may use his Credit for the purpose of Profit, and
therefore as Capital.
He may use it for the purpose of purchasing goods or materials,
or in employing Labour, by giving a Promise to pay at a future
time, instead of actual money. He sells the goods, and makes
a profit by so doing, just as if he had paid for them in money.
Or he may employ Labourers, by means of his Credit, and sell
the products for more than they cost, and so make a Profit In
these ways he uses his Personal Credit as Capital.
When Personal Qualities, either in the form of Labour or
Credit, are used in this way to produce a profit, they are termed
Personal Capital
Abstract Rights and Rights of Action as Capital.
When Personal Credit is used as a Purchasing Power, a Right of
Action, or an Economic Quantity of the third order, is created.
And as this Right of Action may be bought and sold, or exchanged,
like any material chattel, it is a Marketable Commodity (Credit).
The traffic in these Rights of Action is the most colossal branch of
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modern commerce. It is in buying these Rights of Action that the
business of Banking consists, as is fully explained under Credit
and Banking.
But any other Right may be used as Capital. If a man buys
the Funds, or Shares, in a Commercial Company, or Municipal
or other Obligations, such as Railway Debenture Stock, all these,
and many other classes of Rights, produce him a profit; hence
they are Capital to him.
So the Copyright of a successful work is Capital to the author ;
and if he sells it to a publisher, it becomes fixed Capital to him.
So if an ingenious inventor devises a successful machine, the
Patent of it is Capital to him ; and he can sell the Patent to a
capitalist, or a company, who make a profit by it, and it then
becomes fixed Capital to them.
So if a trader establishes a successful business, its Goodwill,
or the Rights to receive its profits, is part of his Capital, and he
can sell the Goodwill of it to another trader, and then it becomes
Capital to him.
So if a Professional man, such as a doctor, or a solicitor, or any
other, establishes a successful business, the Practice, or the Right
to receive the expected future profits from his patients and clients,
is Capital to him, and be may sell the Practice to any other pro-
fessional man, and it becomes Capital to him.
There is a class of traders whose especial business is to buy
and sell Rights — such as Shares in all kinds of Commercial
Companies, and Public Securities of all sorts. They keep a stock
of this kind of Property on hand, just as other traders keep a stock
of material goods, and make a profit by buying and selling these
various Rights. These persons are termed Stock-jobbers, and
these various Rights are floating Capital to them, just as material
chattels are to an ordinary trader.
Capital may Increase in Two distinct ways,
Capital may increase in two fundamentally distinct ways : —
1. By actual increase of Quantity, as cattle, flocks, and herds,
and all the fruits of the earth increase by adding to their number or
Quantity.
2. By Commerce, or Exchange ; that is, by exchanging away
something which has a certain value in a place, and obtaining some-
thing in exchange for it which has a higher Value in that place.
Money is used as Capital, and produces a profit, by the second
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230 Fundamental Concepts and Axiotns [Bk. II.
of these methods. Money is used as Capital either by advancing a
certain sum of it, and acquiring the Right to be repaid the Capital,
together with interest, at a future time, or by buying goods which
are to be sold for a higher price than they cost, or by employing
Labour to produce commodities, and selling them at a higher price
than they cost
It is also clear that any Economic Quantity which is used as a
substitute for Money, and produces exactly the same effects and
profits as Money, may be used as Capital as well as Money, by
the force of the definition which Senior says all Economists are
agreed in.
Hence, if a merchant or trader can purchase goods or labour
with his Credit, by giving his Promise to pay at a future time,
and can sell the goods at a higher price than he had paid for
them, and so make a profit, after paying and discharging the
Debt he incurred by buying them, then it is clear that his Credit
has been Capital to him exactly in the same way, and in the same
sense, that Money is.
Take a very simple example. Suppose that a trader buys goods
for ;£ioo, and sells them for ^£125; he first replaces his original
capital of ;£ioo, and he then has a surplus of £2$. But as he
expects a profit upon the use of his Money as trading Capital, this
will diminish his real profit on the transaction by about £$. But
he then has a real and bond-fide profit of ^20 per cent., and he has
used his Credit as Capital.
On the other hand, suppose that the trader sees that he can make
a profit if he has the means to purchase goods. But suppose that
he has no Money and no Credit, then he can purchase no goods,
and he can make no profit.
But suppose he has Credit — that is, that the owner of the goods
has confidence in his skill, integrity, and character— he may sell
him the goods, and take as the price his Promise to pay at a future
time instead of actual money.
Now as the payment is deferred, and there is always some risk of
failure in payment, the price in Credit is always higher than the
price in Money.
Suppose that the price in Credit is ^105, then, as before, the
trader sells the goods for ^£125. At the agreed upon time, he
discharges his debt of ^£105, and he has a surplus or profit of
;£2o. This is pure profit, because his Credit, with which he has
purchased the goods, cost him nothing, and therefore he does not
expect any interest upon that, as he does upon Money. Thus he is
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better off by ^£20 at the end of the operation than he was at the
beginning, and thus he has used his Credit as Capital.
Hence he has made a profit by his Credit equally as by his
Money. Hence, by the very definition, his Credit has been
Capital to him, and it has produced exactly the same circulation
of commodities that Money would have done.
Hence it is clear that Credit is Productive Capital, exactly
in the same way and in the same sense that Money is.
Thus we see how a clear and distinct understanding of definitions
removes all doubts and difficulties. Many persons have found it
very hard to understand how Credit can be Capital But that
entirely depends on the definition of Credit, and the definition of
Capital. When it is agreed that Everything which has Purchasing
Power is Wealth, all difficulty vanishes. Because Money is pur-
chasing power, and also Credit is purchasing power, a trader's
Purchasing Power is his Money and his Credit Therefore, his
Money and his Credit are equally Wealth.
And as we have seen that the definition of Capital is " Anything
which produces a profit," and that a trader makes a Profit equally
by his Money and Credit, it necessarily follows that he may use his
Money and his Credit equally as Capital.
Thus the expression that "Credit is Capital/1 which has called
forth so much dissent in recent times, simply means that commerce
is carried on by means of Credit, by Bank-notes, Cheques, Bills of
Exchange, and other instruments, as well as by Money.
If Money be termed Positive Capital, Credit may be termed
Negative Capital.
A merchant's Wealth or Purchasing Power consists of his Money,
his Rights to demand Money — i.e. the Bank-notes, Cheques, Bills
of Exchange, or other Securities he may possess — and his Credit,
i.e. his Right to the future products of his industry.
If he buys goods with his Money, and sells them with a profit, he
first replaces the sum he has expended, and the surplus is his profit.
If he buys goods with his Credit, he creates a Debt against
himself; when he sells the goods, he first discharges the Debt he
has incurred, and the surplus is his profit
In either case his Profit consists in the excess of his Property, at
the end of the operation, above what it was at the beginning.
Now, as Senior says, " Economists are agreed that whatever gives
a profit is properly termed Capital."
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232 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
If he buys with Money, he makes Capital of the realised Profits
of the Past ; if he buys with Credit, he makes Capital of the
expected Profits of the Future.
In each case he makes a Profit ; hence, by the Definition, Money
and Credit are equally Capital, but they are Inverse, or Opposite
to each other. Hence, if Money be termed Positive Capital,
Credit may be termed Negative Capital
The meaning of Capital, as denoting anything by which a profit
can be made, is constantly used in the common language of politics.
It is scarcely possible to take up a newspaper without seeing it said
that one party or another makes Capital out of such and such an
event Thus, where one party in the State makes an error, the
other party is said to make "Capital" of it; i.e. turn it to their
own profit. Or when the Government achieves a great military or
political success, it is said to make " Capital " of it ; i.e. turn it to
its own profit
Thus Cobden said in a letter: "They have traded for the last
fifteen years as a political party on the Irish question, but now that
Capital is exhausted."
Hence Capital is anything whatever which a person trades with,
and makes a profit by.
There is no such thing as A b 80 lute Capital.
It has been shown that there is no such thing as. Absolute
Wealth ; that is, there is nothing which is in its own nature Wealth,
and that whether anything is Wealth or not, depends entirely on
human wants and desires.
So also it must be carefully observed that there is no such thing
as Absolute Capital.
As Mill justly observes, the distinction between Capital and non-
capital does not lie in the kind of commodity, but in the Mind
of the owner. That is, that whether anything is Capital or not, in
no way depends on the Nature of the thing itself, but solely and
exclusively on its Method of Use.
Many writers, from an imperfect consideration of the subject, say
that Capital is simply the accumulation of the products of past
labour. But this is a vital error, which must be carefully guarded
against Because all the accumulated products of past Labour are
not Capital, but only that portion of them which is traded with, or
used for the purposes of profit
Moreover, many things may be used as Capital which are in no
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way the accumulated products of past labour. As Senior says :
"Economists are agreed that Whatever gives a profit is properly
termed Capital." Now it has been shown that any Economic
Quantity may be used as Capital. Not only may many material
products be used as Capital which are not the products of past
labour, such as the land, but Personal Qualities, both in the form of
Labour and Credit, may be used as Capital. Now, How is Labour
itself the accumulated product of past Labour? How is Personal
Credit the accumulated product of past Labour? Also Incorporeal
Quantities may be used as Capital, or for the purposes of profit,
as well as any material chattels. Banking Credits, Bank-notes,
Cheques, Bills of Exchange, &c, may all be used as Capital, and
how are they the accumulated products of past labour? In fact,
in this great civilised country the enormously greater amount of
Capital is purely Personal and Incorporeal
Some statisticians, indeed, endeavour to estimate the amount of
Capital in the country. But it is evident that such attempts are
wholly futile. How can they form any estimate of the amount of
Capital unless they tell us what they reckon as Capital? Because it
is utterly impossible to estimate the amount of Economic Quantities
which are being used as Capital at any given instant. The very
•same Quantity may be used as Income at one instant, and as Capital
at the next And it has been shown that persons trade with, and
make Capital of, not only the realised profits of the past, but also
the Expected Profits of the Future.
On Fixed and Floating or Circulating Capital.
We have seen that there is no such thing as Absolute Capital
But Capital itself may be used in two different ways :
1. The Capitalist may retain the object used as Capital in his
own possession, and make a continuous series of profits by its use.
Consequently the Capital, supposing it to be worn out, is only
replaced with the profits in a series of instalments. Capital used in
this way is termed Fixed Capital.
2. The Capitalist may part with it entirely, and replace the value
of the Capital with a profit in one operation. Hence it goes away
from him entirely, and is replaced in one operation. Capital used
in this way is termed Floating or Circulating Capital.
It must be clearly understood that it is entirely according to the
intention of the person who uses it, and the purpose and method in
which it is used, that it receives either of these denominations.
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234 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. IL
The same article may be Floating Capital in the hands of one
person, and Fixed Capital in the hands of its next possessor, if the
first produces it for the purpose of selling it outright, and the next
purchases it, and retains it in his own possession, and only makes a
profit by its continuous use.
This distinction is often overlooked, and the term Fixed Capital
is applied to articles of a certain nature, and the term Floating or
Circulating Capital to articles of another nature ; but this is very
erroneous.
Thus Smith enumerates four kinds of Fixed Capital :
i. The useful machines and instruments of trade, which facilitate
and abridge labour.
2. Buildings used for purposes of profit, both by their proprietors
and by those who pay rent for them for trading purposes.
3. Improvements in land.
4. The Acquired and Useful Abilities of all the members of the
Society.
This enumeration is imperfect, because Smith omits all that
stupendous mass of Incorporeal Property which has increased to
such a gigantic extent in modem times.
Thus, if a person invests his money in the Funds, or in the
Shares of a Commercial Company of any sort, or in Railway De*
bentures, or in Municipal Loans, or in the Obligations of other
public bodies, or in purchasing the Goodwill of a Business, or in a
Professional Practice, or in Copyrights or Patents, or in any Incor-
poreal Property which yields a revenue; all these are Fixed
Capital.
Smith also enumerates four kinds of Floating, or Circulating,
Capital :
1. The Money by means of which the other three are circulated
and distributed to their proper consumers.
Under the term Money he includes Bank-notes, and of course
Cheques, Bills of Exchange, and other Securities for Money. But
all these paper documents are merely Rights of Action or Credits ;
hence Smith expressly includes Credit under the term Floating, or
Circulating, Capital
2. The stock of provisions in the hands of the farmers, graziers,
butchers, corn merchants, brewers, &c.
3. The materials in the hands of different workpeople to be made
up, clothes, furniture, &c.
4. The work which is made and completed, but still remains in
the hands of the merchants and manufacturers, but not yet disposed
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of, or distributed to the proper consumers, such as the finished work
in the shop of the smith, cabinet maker, goldsmith, jeweller, china
merchant, &c
This enumeration is also imperfect because, as before, Smith has
omitted all that mass of Incorporeal Property which, as we shall
show, may be used as Floating and Circulating Capital, as well as
material chattels.
It must be carefully observed that Smith's distinction between
certain articles as absolutely Fixed Capital, and other articles as
absolutely Circulating Capital, is to a great extent erroneous.
If a person buys land for the purpose of farming it himself, or of
letting it out to farmers, or if he buys or builds houses for the
purpose of letting them out to tenants, then such land or houses are
Fixed Capital.
But it is quite common for speculators to buy up land and build
houses for the express purpose of selling them again, and so recoup-
ing their outlay in one operation. In the hands of such speculators,
land and houses so treated are Circulating Capital.
Some manufacturers build engines, which are sold to railway com-
panies; or agricultural implements, which are sold to farmers; or
machinery, which is sold to manufacturers. In the hands of the
makers, these engines and machinery are Floating, or Circulat-
ing, Capital, because they are made for the purpose of being sold
outright, and so changing hands, and their whole price and profit is
reaped in one operation. When they come into the hands of the
railway companies, the farmers, and the manufacturers, they become
Fixed Capital, because they remain in the possession of their
owners, who only recoup themselves gradually for their wear, tear,
and deterioration in a continuous series of profits.
So a shipbuilder builds ships, and sells them to a shipping
company. In the hands of the builder these ships are Floating
Capital ; in the hands of the company they are Fixed Capital
And so many other instances might be quoted.
On the other hand, many articles which are generally used as
Floating Capital may become Fixed Capital. Furniture, clothes,
and plate are usually Floating Capital, because they are usually
made for the purpose of being sold.
But sometimes they are retained in the hands of their owners and
let out for hire, and then they become Fixed Capital.
There is a class of traders named Stock Jobbers, who buy Stocks
and Shares and Public Securities with the intention of selling them
again with a profit, just as other traders buy and sell material goods.
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236 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
In the hands of these Stock Jobbers these Stocks, Shares, and
Securities are Floating Capital. But other persons buy these
Stocks, Shares, and Securities as a permanent investment, and in
the hands of such persons they are Fixed Capital.
Another class of traders, named Bankers, make a special business
of buying Debts ; />. discounting Bills of Exchange. The Bills in
the portfolio of a banker are exactly like the goods in the shop of
a trader. The banker buys Bills of Exchange, which are merchan-
dise, or commodities, from one set of persons, his own customers,
and sells them at a higher price to other persons, namely, the
acceptors, and so makes a profit Hence the Bills in the portfolio
of a banker are Floating Capital, exactly as the goods in the shop
of a trader are.
It is, therefore, incorrect to apply the terms Floating, or Fixed,
Capital absolutely to any articles, whatever their nature may be,
unless we know the method in which their owners employ them.
And unless an object is incapable of being applied to more than
one of these purposes, it is not correct to call it by either name
absolutely.
There are very few things to which the name of Fixed Capital
may be invariably applied. The only class of Economic Quantities
which are invariably Fixed Capital are Personal Qualities. Persons
cannot devest themselves of their qualities; they can only make
an income by their use. They are, therefore, necessarily Fixed
Capital
So persons do not make a business of buying and selling Copy-
rights, Patents, and the Practices of Professions. Therefore, these
commodities are always Fixed Capital.
On the other hand, Money and all articles of Consumption, such
as corn, wine, oils, coals, meat, &c, are necessarily Floating
Capital, because it is not possible to make a profit by them except
by absolutely parting with them.
Almost all other property is capable of being employed in either
way at the will of the owner, and, therefore, is Fixed, or Floating,
Capital, according to the method in which it is used.
Ricardo on Fixed and Floating Capital.
The distinction between Fixed and Floating Capital by Adam
Smith is perfectly clear, distinct, and philosophical, and leads to
very important consequences. Ricardo has thrown the subject
into confusion by saying: "According as Capital is rapidly
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perishable, and requires to be frequently reproduced, or is of slow
consumption, it is classed under the heads of Circulating or of
Fixed Capital." (Chap. I. sect iv.) Thus Ricardo not only com-
pletely mistook the principle of Smith's distinction, but made one
of his own, which is utterly useless and unphilosophical, and in
direct violation of the Law of Continuity. Because at what degree
of perishability does the product change its nature from being
Fixed to being Floating Capital? Ricardo's illustrations are also
equally unphilosophical. Thus he says that a brewer, whose
buildings and machinery are valuable and durable, is said to
employ a large portion of Fixed Capital ; but a shoemaker, whose
capital is chiefly employed in the payment of wages, which are
expended on food and clothing, commodities more perishable than
buildings and machinery, is said to employ a large portion of his
capital as Circulating Capital. It is evident that the reason why a
brewer's buildings and machinery are Fixed Capital, is that they
remain his possession, and he derives an income from their con-
tinuous use; and the shoemaker's wages, food, and clothing are
Circulating Capital, because he parts with the property in them, and
they are replaced in one operation in the price of the product The
distinction has nothing whatever to do with the relative durability
of the articles. We need not enter further into other illustrations
mentioned by Ricardo, of his distinction between Fixed and Circu-
lating Capital, because it is entirely unphilosophical and untenable,
and leads to many fallacious consequences.
MilVs Four Fundamental Propositions on Capital.
Mill has laid down what he terms four fundamental propositions
respecting Capital, which we must now examine. These proposi-
tions are :
1. That Industry is limited by Capital.
2. That all Capital is the result of saving.
3. That although saved, and the result of saving, all Capital is,
nevertheless, consumed, />. destroyed.
4. That what supports and employs Productive Labour is the
Capital expended in setting it to work, and not the demand of
purchasers for the produce of the labour when completed. Demand
for commodities is not demand for labour.
Mill's first proposition that Industry is limited by Capital is taken
from Smith, who says: "The general industry of the society never
can exceed what the Capital of the society can employ. As the
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238 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
number of workmen that can be kept in employment by any
particular person must bear a certain proportion to his Capital, so
the number of those that can continually be employed by all the
members of a great society must bear a certain proportion to the
whole Capital of that society, and never can exceed that proportion.
No regulation of commerce can increase the quantity of industry in
any society beyond what its Capital can maintain."
To this we may observe that Smith himself expressly says that
trade can be extended in proportion to the stock and the Credit of
the trader. Furthermore, he classes Bank-notes, Bills of Exchange,
&c, under the title of Circulating Capital.
Now, in modern times, nineteen-twentieths, or probably it would
be far nearer the truth to say that ninety-nine-hundredths, of industry
is carried on by different forms of Credit. Unless Credit be
admitted to be Capital, this proposition is entirely false ; if Credit
be admitted to be Capital, it may be allowed to be true.
With respect to the second proposition, that all Capital is the
result of saving, it is entirely erroneous.
Land may be used as Capital; and how is land the result of
saving? Personal Credit may be used as Capital; and how is
Personal Credit the result of saving? Stocks, Shares, and Public
Securities of all sorts may be used as Capital ; and how are they the
result of saving ? This proposition is, therefore, not only not funda-
mental, but it is absolutely erroneous. It is only some Capital that
is the result of saving.
The third proposition that, although saved and the result of
saving, all Capital is, nevertheless, consumed, i.e. destroyed, is, if
possible, even more erroneous.
The Duke of Bedford, the Duke of Westminster, and other great
lords are the proprietors of vast districts of ground upon which
London is built. This ground yields them enormous revenues ; it
is therefore Capital to them. How is it the result of saving? How
is it consumed ?
The great Joint Stock Banks of England and Scotland and other
Bankers trade exclusively by means of their Credit Every writer in
the world, who knew what he was writing about, has fully under-
stood and said that the Credit of a Bank is Capital to it, and,
indeed, is its only Capital, because it makes all its purchases and
profits by issuing its Credit ; its Credit is the commodity it deals in.
How is its Credit the result of saving? And is it consumed?
A great author writes a successful work. The copyright of it is
Capital to him ; or he may sell the copyright to a publisher, and it
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becomes Capital to him. How is it the result of saving? And
how is it consumed?
A person, by his skill and thought, discovers some valuable trade
secret, which brings him great profits, and is Capital to him ? How
is it the result of saving? And how is it consumed ?
The street crossings in London are valuable property, or estates,
in land. They are bought and sold; they are bequeathed; they
form the subject of marriage portions. They are Capital to their
owners. How are they the result of saving? How are they
consumed ?
The proprietor of land discovers a valuable mineral spring on
his land. This spring is found to be beneficial in many diseases.
People crowd to it; a great demand for houses springs up; the
spring and the land produce a great revenue to their proprietor.
They are Capital to him. How are they the result of saving?
The spring flows on for ever. How is it consumed?
A Dock, a Canal, or a Railway Company collect subscriptions
from their shareholders. This is their Capital. They then expend
that capital in excavating the dock, or the canal, or in building the
railway. The dock, the canal, or the railway then become Capital
to the company, and no doubt require a certain sum to be expended
to maintain them in repair. But how are they consumed ?
We might give several more instances, if necessary, to show that
it is wholly erroneous to say that it is a fundamental proposition
respecting Capital, that all capital is consumed.
4. We now come to Mill's fourth proposition respecting Capital,
which was originated by Ricardo, and has been adopted by his
idolaters, McCulloch and Mill. The proposition is this — "What
supports and employs productive labour is the capital expended in
setting it to work, and not the demand of purchasers for the pro-
duce of labour when completed. Demand for commodities is not
demand for labour.11
Now, upon looking at these words, they may be said to be a
simple truism. Of course, if we buy a commodity in a shop, we
demand the commodity, we do not demand or employ the labour.
But of what practical consequence this can be, it would be difficult
to conceive. Mr. Longe says it is like saying that a demand for
beef is not a demand for oxen. When a purchaser buys something
in a shop, of course he does not employ the labour himself directly ;
but he puts into the shopkeeper's hands the price of it, which
replaces the sum which the shopkeeper spent in obtaining the
article purchased, and which the shopkeeper may employ as wages
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240 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. IL
in paying the workmen to produce a similar article to replace the
one that is sold, and so on in succession. Every succeeding
purchaser puts the price of every successive product sold into the
shopkeeper's hands, to be employed in buying labour, as long as
the demand for the article continues. Thus, though the purchaser
does not pay the workman directly himself, he supplies the funds
to the shopkeeper, which he employs as wages. This is eminently
a case where the aphorism qui facit per alium facit per se applies.
And what practical consequence to the labouring classes it can be,
whether the purchaser employs them directly himself, by paying
them to produce the article, or paying them through the medium of
the shopkeeper, it would be impossible to discover.
Nevertheless, as Mill and his followers attribute extraordinary
importance to this doctrine, we shall lay before our readers what he
says, and leave them to judge for themselves.
Mill says {Principles of Political Economy, book i. ch. 5, s. 9.) —
" The demand for commodities determines in what particular branch
of production the labour and capital shall be employed : it deter-
mines the direction of the labour : but not the more or less of the
labour itself, or of the maintenance or payment of the labour.
These depend on the amount of the capital, or other funds [what
other funds ?] directly devoted to the sustenance and remuneration
of labour.
" Suppose, for instance, that there is a demand for velvet : a fund
ready to be laid out in buying velvet, but no capital to establish the
manufacture. It is of no consequence how great the demand may
be, unless capital be attracted into the occupation, there will be no
velvet made, and consequently none bought; unless, indeed, the
desire of the intending purchaser for it is so strong, that he employs
part of the price he would have paid for it in making advances
to workpeople, that they may employ themselves in making velvet ;
that is, unless he converts part of his income into capital, and
invests that capital in the manufacture."
We may observe that in such a case he would not convert his
income into capital, unless he intended to sell the velvet with a
profit If he intended to use the velvet himself, what he paid would
be income, just as if he had bought the velvet ready made from the
shopkeeper. If a purchaser buys goods from a shopkeeper, the
shopkeeper converts the money into capital by buying a fresh stock
of goods to sell with a profit.
Mill proceeds — " Let us now reverse the hypothesis, and suppose
that there is plenty of capital ready for making velvet, but no
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demand. Velvet will not be made; but there is no particular
preference on the part of capital for making velvet. Manufacturers
and labourers do not produce for the pleasure of their customers,
but for the supply of their own wants, and having still the capital and
the labour, which are the essentials of production, they can either
produce something else which is in demand, or, if there be no other
demand, they themselves have one, and can produce the things
which they want for their own consumption. So that the employ-
ment afforded to labour does not depend on the purchasers, but
upon the Capital. I am, of course, not taking into consideration
the effects of a sudden change. If the demand ceases unexpectedly,
after the commodity to supply it is already produced, this introduces
a different element into the question ; the capital has actually been
consumed in producing something which nobody wants or uses, and
it has therefore perished, and the employment which it gave to
labour is at an end, not because there is no longer a demand, but
because there is no longer a capital."
Now, in the last passage, what does " Capital " mean ? Is it the
wages paid to the workman, or is it the product, for which there is
no demand ? If the wages be the capital, they do exist ; they exist
in the hands of the person to whom they were paid; and these
persons may use them as Capital or Income as they please. If the
product be the capital, it of course ceases to be capital when no one
will buy it. But of what consequence is that to the labourers?
Mi)l himself says, that a demand for products is not a demand for
labour; therefore, according to his own doctrine, whether there be a
demand for the product or not, it can in no way affect the labourers.
If the workmen are paid for their labour what does it matter to them
what becomes of their produce ? The fund which paid them is not
destroyed ! it remains in existence to effect endless exchanges in
succession. How this case helps on Mill's argument it is impossible
to conceive. s
He then proceeds. — This case, therefore, does not test the
principle. The proper test is to suppose that the change is gradual
and foreseen, and is attended with no waste of capital, the manufac-
ture being discontinued by merely not replacing the machinery as it
wears out, and not reinvesting the money as it comes in from the
sale of the produce. The capital is thus ready for a new
employment, in which it will maintain as much labour as before.
" This theorem that to purchase produce is not to employ labour ;
that the demand for labour is constituted by the wages which precede
the production, and not by the demand which may exist for the
R
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242 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
commodities resulting from the production, is a proposition which
greatly needs all the illustration it can receive. It is to common
apprehension a paradox, and even among political economists of
reputation I can hardly point to any, except Mr. Ricardo and M.
Say, who have kept it constantly and steadily in view. Almost all
others occasionally express themselves as if a person who buys
commodities, the produce of labour, was an employer of labour, and
created a demand for it as really, and in the same sense, as if he
bought the labour itself directly, by the payment of wages. It is no
wonder that political economy advances slowly, when such a
question as this remains open at its very threshold."
We think, but we are by no means sure, that we have seen some
glimmer of Mill's meaning in the preceding paragraphs. He says
that if there be a fund ready to buy velvet, but no capital to
establish a manufacture, no velvet can be bought, because there is
none made. We will now take a familiar instance, which just meets
the case. Scotland, before the introduction of Banks and Credit,
had abundance of fertile land and of unemployed people, but no
capital to serve as wages to pay them to till and sow the land.
Now, of course, there was always a demand for corn; but the
Scottish proprietors could grow no corn, because they had no capital
to pay as wages, before the corn was produced ; and they could get
no capital, because they had no corn to sell. They were, therefore,
in a deadlock. If they could once get a crop sown, that crop
would produce the capital to continue the cropping for ever. The
real difficulty was to start the operation, which, as Mill truly says,
could not be set agoing without capital spent as wages previous to
obtaining the produce. Ce riesl que le premier fas qui couU. In
fact, the com was waiting for the wages, and the wages were waiting
for the corn. It was an Economic position just like that of the two
heroes : —
"The Earl of Chatham, with his sabre drawn,
Was waiting for Sir Richard Strachan;
Sir Richard, eager to be at 'em,
Was waiting for the Earl of Chatham."
No doubt there is the difficulty, as Mill says, just as in the case
of the velvet. Now this difficulty is obviated, and the hiatus
bridged over by means of Bank Notes. The Scottish banks, seeing
the state of matters, established branches throughout the country,
and advanced the Present Value of the future crops, in the form
of their own Notes or Credit ; and, by this means, the grand result
was, obtaining the wages to start the operation. By this creation of
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Credit, used as wages, the land is reclaimed, the seed is sown, and
the sale of the crops provides the funds, partly to redeem the
advances, and partly to renew the operations, which, being once
started, may be carried on for ever. Hence the whole difficulty
vanishes into air, and, virtually speaking, the person who buys the
produce is the employer of labour, and creates the demand, in all
respects, as effectually as if he himself had bought the labour
directly, by the payment of wages.
Having thus shown how this imaginary difficulty is obviated, we
now come to more tangible doctrine— "I apprehend that, if by
demand for labour be meant the demand by which wages are raised,
or the number of labourers in employment increased, demand for
commodities does not constitute demand for labour?
Such an assertion is so contrary to the plainest experience, that it
is amazing that Mill could have made it ; and, as is most usually the
case, we have only to cite Mill to confute Mill. Elsewhere he says —
(Book ii. ch. 2, § 5) — " It is a common saying that wages are high
when trade is good. The demand for labour* in any particular
employment is more pressing, and higher wages are paid, when there
is a brisk demand for the commodities produced; and the contrary
when there is what is called a stagnation; then workpeople are
dismissed, and those who are retained must submit to a reduction of
wages, though, in these cases, there is neither more nor less capital
than before. ....
"A manufacturer finding a slack demand for his commodity,
forbears to employ labourers to increase a stock which he finds it
difficult to dispose of; or if he goes on until all his capital is locked
up in unsold goods, then, at least, he must of necessity pause until
he can get paid for some of them. But no one expects either of
these states to be permanent; if he did, he would, at the first
opportunity, remove his capital to some other occupation, in which
it would still continue to employ labour. The capital remains
unemployed for a time, during which the labour market is over-
stocked, and wages fall Afterwards the demand revives, and
perhaps becomes unusually brisk, enabling the manufacturer to sell
his commodity even faster than he can produce it; his whole capital
is then brought into complete efficiency, and, if he is able, he
borrows capital in addition, which would otherwise have gone into
some other employment. At such time wages in his occupation
rise. If we suppose, what in strictness is not absolutely impossible,
that one of these fits of briskness or stagnation should affect all
occupations at the same time, wages might undergo a rise or a fall."
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244 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Now what can be more contradictory to the ddctrine, that
" demand for commodities is not a demand for wages/' than these
two last passages? What need have we to refute Mill when he has
done so effectually himself?
This doctrine of Mill's is so contrary to common sense, that it
would seem waste of time to refute it But if it wanted refutation,
what more excellent example of it can be had than the evidence and
report of the Committee, appointed on the sudden rise in the price
of coal, in 1873. It was then distinctly proved that the price
of iron rose immensely from the enormous demand for it; the
immense demand for iron caused an immense demand for coal, and
accordingly its price rose immensely, and its increased price caused
an immense demand for labourers, and their wages, too, rose very
greatly, though not in proportion to the rise of coal. Who, after
this, can say that a demand for commodities is not a demand
for labour ? Who can say that an increased demand for the com-
modity, does not lead to a rise of wages ? We have already shown
that it is now well understood by the workmen, that the "wages
fund " is not existing capital, but the price of the commodity pro-
duced ; and their wages must rise and fall according to that price.
Mill's doctrine is founded on the exploded fallacy of Ricardo, that
it is "Cost of Production" or "quantity of labour" which regulates
value ; without disputing that in some cases cost of production or
quantity of labour affects the supply, and so influences price, it is just
as often the reverse ; and it is the increased price of the product
which provides an increased fund to be divided between masters and
workmen; and of this, the report of the Coal Committee is a
pregnant and decisive instance.
We have thus shown that Mill's fourth fundamental proposition
regarding Capital, is as baseless and untrue as the preceding three ;
and therefore it is wholly unnecessary to consider any more illustra-
tions he may give. But there is one doctrine of his so extraordinary
that we cannot pass it over : —
" The consumer has been accustomed to buy velvet, but resolves
to discontinue that expense, and to employ the same annual sum in
hiring bricklayers. If the common opinion be correct, this change
in the mode of his expenditure gives no additional employment
to labour, but only transfers employment from velvet makers to
bricklayers. On closer inspection, however, it will be seen that there
is an increase of the total sum applied to the remuneration of labour.
The velvet manufacturer, supposing him aware of the diminished
demand for his commodity, diminishes the production and sets at
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liberty a corresponding portion of the capital employed in the manu-
facture. This capital thus withdrawn from the maintenance of
velvet makers, is not the same fund with that which the customer
employs in maintaining bricklayers ; it is a second fund. There are,
therefore, two funds to be employed in the maintenance and remuneration
of labour, where before there was only one. There is not a transfer of
employment from velvet makers to bricklayers; there is a new
employment created for bricklayers, and a transfer of employment
from velvet makers to some other labourers, most probably those who
produce the food and other things which the bricklayers consume."
We pause for our readers to examine this astounding doctrine.
According to Mill, if all the buyers of commodities were suddenly to
discontinue buying them and employ those very funds, which were
previously employed in buying commodities, in hiring labour, it
would double the labour fund ! Is it necessary to point out the
obvious arithmetical blunder on which it rests? By Mill's own
supposition the velvet makers are left unemployed. The labourers
who are called upon to provide the food and necessaries for the
bricklayers, previously provided that food for the velvet makers.
Of course, if the velvet makers are left without wages they must
starve, and cannot buy food ; but the bricklayers can, because the
fund which formerly bought the velvet makers' food is now given to
the bricklayers, and buys their food. To the producers of food, it
makes no difference whether they sell it to bricklayers or to velvet
makers. But by Mill's argument, he has simply taken away the
funds from the velvet makers whom he has left to starve, and given
them to the bricklayers, and by so doing he says that the labour
fund is doubled ! It is plain that so far as regards the food
producers, it is only substituting bricklayers for velvet makers, and
there is, therefore, no increased demand for food. Thus, according
to Mill, to take away a fund from one set of persons and to give the
very same fund to another, is to double the fund 1 Most wonderful
logic ! This is truly the discovery of the Philosophers' Stone !
We have now found the grand secret to multiply a fund any
number of times. According to this doctrine, robbing Peter to pay
Paul doubles the fund. If taking away the fund from velvet makers
and giving it to bricklayers doubles the fund, then taking it away
from bricklayers and giving it to carpenters triples it ; taking it
away from the carpenters and giving it to ploughmen quadruples it,
and so on to any extent Why should there ever be any want
of funds to employ labour when they can be found so easily, simply
by taking them away from some one else?
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246". Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Experience suggests to us a case where the application of this
doctrine is highly satisfactory. When Paterfamilias has a lot of
boys clamouring for pocket money — though what boys can want
with pocket money we cannot conceive — he has only to take half-a-
crown out of his pocket and give it to Roderick : Roderick is paid.
Paterfamilias then takes away the half-crown from Roderick and
gives it to Crichton: Crichton is paid. Paterfamilias then takes
away the half-crown from Crichton and gives it to Keith : Keith is
paid. Paterfamilias then takes away the half-crown from Keith,
and puts it back in his own pocket By this means each of the
boys has been paid his pocket money, and Paterfamilias has got
it in his own pocket as welL It is possible that Roderick, Crichton,
and Keith may not fully comprehend the nature of this operation :
at all events, Paterfamilias is quite satisfied with it If the boys
feel any difficulty about it, if they have an imaginary vacancy in
their pockets, where the half-crown is not, Paterfamilias simply
refers them to Mill, the logical Pope of the British people, who will
explain to them quite satisfactorily that by this operation the fund
has been quadrupled, and that they have each had their pocket
money, and leaves them to digest this elementary lesson in Logic
and Economics as best they may. And this is a principle of very
.extensive application : which shows that Economics is well worth
the study of all Patrum-familiarum,
' We may therefore dismiss Mill's fourth fundamental proposition
regarding Capital to the same limbo as the other three. And we
cannot help observing that this is a striking example of the folly of
literary men, writing on subjects of which they have no knowledge.
Here is a whole chapter of Mill, containing thirty pages, which is a
complete mass of errors in itself, and on each separate part of it we
have shown that Mill has contradicted himself. And thus the
young student's mind is filled with erroneous notions on the funda-
mental principles of the subject, which he must utterly exterminate
if he would understand modern commerce.
CASH CREDITS.
We have now to describe a species of Credit, devised by a Bank
in Scotland, to which the marvellous progress of that country is
chiefly due.
The Bank of Scotland was founded in 1695, with unlimited
powers of issue both in amount and denomination. At first it only
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C] . Cash Credits 247:
issued Notes of ;£ioo, ^50, ^10, and ^5. Though several time?
urged to issue £1 Notes, they did not do so until 1704. The
Bank received a monopoly of banking for twenty-one years ; but in
1 7 16, when the monopoly expired, it was not renewed.
In the year 1727, the proprietors of the Equivalent Fund were
endowed, by Royal Charter, with powers of Banking, and they
assumed the name of the Royal Bank.
In the very contracted sphere of commerce in Scotland at that
time, there were not sufficient Commercial Bills in circulation to
exhaust the Credit of the Banks. They had, as it were, a super-
fluity of unexhausted Credit on hand ; and the Royal Bank devised
a new scheme for getting its Credit into circulation, which was the
most marvellous development of Credit ever imagined.
It agreed, on receiving sufficient guarantees, to open credits of
certain limited amounts, in favor of trustworthy and respectable
persons.
A Cash Credit is a Drawing Account, created in favour of a
person who pays in no money, which he may operate upon pre-
cisely in the same manner as on an ordinary account; the only
difference being that instead of receiving interest on the daily
balance of his account, as used formerly to be the case in Scotland,
he is charged interest on the daily balance at his Debit. A Cash
Credit is, therefore, an Inverse drawing account
Cash Credits are applicable to a totally different class of trans-
actions to those giving rise to Bills of Exchange. One difference
being that Bills of Exchange arise out of the transfers of commodities,
and are payable in one sum at a fixed date. Whereas Cash Credits
are not issued on the transfer of commodities ; or on any previous
transactions. They are expressly intended to promote the formation
of future products. They are not repayable at any fixed date ; but
they are a continuous working account, which remains open as long
as the operations are satisfactory.
It is a condition of all Cash Credits that the persons to whom
they are granted should accept all advances in the Bank's own
Notes.
In order to understand clearly the principles of the system, it is
only necessary to recur to our fundamental Definition or Concept of
Credit Because a true fundamental Definition or Concept is the
polestar to guide us through all difficulties and perplexities. " There
is nothing in the world," said the great Duke of Wellington, with
his commanding good sense, " like a good Definition.1'
It has been shown that the true definition of Credit is the
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248 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. IL
" Present Right or the Present Value of a Future Profit"
And every Future Profit, from whatever source arising, or of what-
soever nature, has a Present Value, which may be recorded on
any material such as paper, and may be brought into commerce ;
and may be bought and sold, and transferred by manual delivery,
exactly like money, or any other material chattel.
Land is an Economic Quantity, which produces a continuous
series of profits; and a trader, exercising any profitable business,
is an Economic Quantity, analogous to land, and produces a con-
tinuous series of profits.
The true limits of Mercantile Credit are the future profits of
Mercantile traders. All Credit is sound which is redeemed at
maturity ; and Mercantile Banking consists in buying up the Rights
to be paid out of these future profits of mercantile traders.
Now if every future mercantile profit has a Present Value, which
can be brought into commerce and exchanged, the same is equally
true of the Land, and of every commercial work or enterprise.
The Present Value of every future profit from Land or any
commercial work can be brought into commerce, and bought and
sold, exactly like the Present Values of the Future Profits of traders,
and if the Credit be strictly limited, and redeemed by the future
profits of the land or commercial enterprise, Credit may be created
to purchase the Present Value of these Future Profits from Land
and commercial public works, exactly in the same way as it is
created to purchase the Present Values of the Future Profits from
traders.
Cash Credits are applied to two different purposes —
1.. To aid private persons in business.
a. To promote Agriculture, and the formation of Commercial
works 0/ all kinds.
Cash Credits granted in aid of Persons.
Every man in "business, however humble or however extensive,
must necessarily keep a certain portion of ready money by him to
answer immediate demands for small daily expenses, wages, and
other things. This could, of course, be much more profitably
employed in his business, where it might produce a profit of fifteen
or twenty per cent instead of lying idle. But unless the trader
knew that he could command it at a moment's notice, he would
always be obliged to keep a certain amount of ready money in his
till, unless he were able to command the use of some one else's till.
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Now one object of a Cash Credit is to supply this convenience
to the trader, and to enable him to invest the whole of his capital in
his business, and, upon proper security being given, to furnish him
with the accommodation of a till at a moment's notice, in such
small sums as he may require, on his paying a moderate interest for
the accommodation.
Almost every trader in Scotland has a Cash Credit at a Bank, by
which he can draw out such sums as he may want for his daily
business, and replace such as he does not want before the close of
bank hours.
Almost every young man in Scotland commencing business, does
it by means of a Cash Credit. Thus, for instance, lawyers, or
writers to the signet, commencing business, have occasion for ready
money from day to day, before they can get in payments from their
clients. It is a great bar to any young man to commence the
business of a solicitor without capital, which must either be his own,
or furnished him by his friends. It is an immense advantage to him
and to them, to have it supplied by a Bank, by means of a Cash
Credit, on a mere guarantee, a mere contingency which they would
never give if they thought there was any danger of its being
enforced.
So the great employers of labour, manufacturers, builders, ship
builders, and others, have Cash Credits, by which they can pay their
labourers.
These Credits are granted to all classes of society, to the poor as
freely as to the rich. Everything depends upon Character.
Young men in the humblest walks of life may inspire their friends
with confidence in their steadiness and judgment, and they become
sureties for them on a Cash Credit. This is in all respects of equal
value as money, and thus they have the means placed within their
reach of rising to any extent that their abilities and industry permit
them. Multitudes of men who have raised themselves to immense
wealth began life with nothing but a Cash Credit. As one example
among thousands, Mr. Monteith, M.P., told the Committee of the
House of Commons in 1826, that he was a manufacturer, employing
at that time 4,000 hands, and that, except with the merest trifle of
capital lent him, and which he soon paid off, he began the world
with nothing but a Cash Credit
The Banks usually limit their advances to a certain moderate
amount, varying from ;£ioo to ;£i,ooo in general, and they take
several sureties in every case. These cautioners, as they are termed
in Scottish Law, keep a watchful eye on the proceedings of the
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customer, and have the right of inspecting his account with the
Bank, and of stopping it at any time, if irregular. These Credits
are not meant to degenerate into dead loans, but they are required
to be operated upon by constantly paying in and drawing out
The enormous amount of transactions carried on by this kind of
account may be judged of by the evidence given before the Committee
of the Commons in 1826. It was then stated that on a Credit of
;£iooo, operations to the extent of ,£50,000 took place in a single
week. Others stated that on a Cash Credit of £500, operations to
the amount of £70,000 took place in a year. One witness stated
that in a very moderately-sized country-bank, operations to the
amount of £"90,000,000 took place in twenty-one years ; and that
the whole loss to the bank during that period was ,£1200.
At that time (1826) it was conjectured that there were about
12,000 Cash Credits guaranteed by about 40,000 sureties, who were
interested in the integrity, prudence, and success of the customers.
The witnesses before the Lords declared that the effects of these
were most remarkable on the morals of the people.
On Cash Credits granted to promote Agriculture and the
Formation of Public Works.
We have now to show how the Scottish System of Cash Credits
has been applied to promote Agriculture, and the formation of all
manner of Public Works.
The two Scottish Banks which were first founded applied their
Cash Credits to assist the industry of traders, and tendered much
to forward it. Agricultural industry had not then awoke. The
Scots were a fierce, turbulent people, who thought more of harrying
their neighbours, and raiding their cattle, than of peaceful agriculture.
The land was bound down under the fetters of the feudal system.
But after the suppression of the Rebellion in 1746, the feudal system
was, to a great extent, broken up, and a great spirit of enterprise
awoke, and, then, for the first time, Scotland became an industrial
nation.
At this time there were, in many parts of Scotland, large tracts of
reclaimable land, and multitudes of people, but they remained un-
employed, because there was no money in the country to set their
industry in motion.
Now, suppose that a proprietor of one of these tracts of land
had had £10,000 in money: and that he had employed it in
paying wages to labourers, and in buying seed to sow: then, in
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course of time, the value of the produce of the land would replace
the sum expended in bringing the land into cultivation. Then
the money so employed would have been expended as Capital.
But, at that time, there was, comparatively speaking, no money
in the country. It was just then emerging from the bonds of
feudalism. The chiefs had vast tracts of land, and, no doubt,
lived in a state of rude abundance from their herds and flocks,
and the natural produce of the soil. But commerce had never
penetrated into these highland strongholds: and consequently the
greatest chiefs were very seldom blessed with the sight of coin.
But at this period began the transition from feudalism into in-
dustrialism, in which money was absolutely indispensable. It
was at this time that the Banks, having habituated the people
during forty years to receive their £x Notes in all respects as
Money, and having acquired their thorough confidence, threw out
branches in all directions, and sent down boxes of £i Notes.
Farmers, at that time, had no votes in Scotland, and conse-
quently the landlords had no motives to keep their tenants in
political thraldom, as was too much the case in England. They
adopted every means possible to develope the resources of the
soil And, as it was not to be expected that the farmers would
lay out their capital and industry on the soil without security of
tenure, it became the custom, almost universal in Scotland, for
landowners to grant their tenants leases of nineteen years ; and, in
many cases, for particular reasons, much longer than that.
Upon the security of these leases, and also upon that of personal
friends, the Banks everywhere granted Cash Credits to the farmers,
the advances being made exclusively in their own £i Notes. From
the strong constitution of the Banks, and the universal confidence
they had acquired, their Notes were universally received as Cash,
and, though they were demandable in cash at the Head Office, no
one ever dreamt of demanding payment for them.
With these advances in £i Notes, the farmers employed the
labourers in reclaiming the land, bought seed, and sowed the crops.
The Notes were employed in exactly the same way as Money would
have been, and they produced exactly the same effects as money
would have done.
The land was reclaimed, and sown, and stocked, and, in a few
years, bleak and barren moors were everywhere changed into fields
of waving corn : and they produced continuous series of profits.
With the value of the produce the farmers gradually repaid the
loans, and reaped a profit
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252 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Now, if it be admitted that Money expended in agricultural
improvements is used as Productive Capital, how can it be
denied that Credit, employed in exactly the same way, and which
produces exactly the same effects as Money, and produces exactly
the same profits, is also equally Productive Capital ?
The jQi Notes were universally received by the people as of
exactly the same value as Money: and, therefore, they were, in
all respects, Money; they produced exactly the same profits that
Money would have done. Now, as we have seen that " Capital
is Anything which produces a Profit," it is evident that the
jQi Notes were just as much Productive Capital as the
Money.
The only difference was that, in using Money, the employer
made Capital of. the Realised Profits of the Past: in using
Credit he made Capital of the Expected Profits of the Future.
But the results are exactly the same in either case.
Everyone acquainted with Scotland, knows perfectly well that
the prodigious progress in agriculture made in that country during
the last 150 years has been almost entirely effected by means of
these Cash Credits.
Not only has almost the entire progress in agriculture between
been effected by these Cash Credits, but all public works of every
description — Roads, Canals, Docks, Harbours, Railways, Public
Buildings, &c. have also been made by means of Cash Credits.
It was stated to the Committee of the House of Commons, in
1826, that the Forth and Clyde Canal was executed by means of
a Cash Credit of ,£40,000, granted by the Royal Bank. So, when
a Road has to be made, the Trustees obtain a Cash Credit, and
pay it off out of the rates. So, when a Railway, a Dock, a
Harbour, a Public Building, a Canal, is to be made, the Directors
obtain a Cash Credit, and so pay the wages of the men. We
have given elsewhere (Credit) the instance of the Market at
Guernsey being built by Notes issued by the States, secured on
the future profits of the Market. Many other Markets have
been built by the same means. The great Cash Credit system
of the Scottish Banks is absolutely the same thing, only on a
prodigiously enlarged scale, and a more organised system.
It is thus seen how Credit is applied to the Formation of New
Products, equally well as to the Transfer of existing ones.
Credit is Purchasing Power equally as Money, and it may be
applied to purchase Labour to form New products, equally well
as to transfer existing ones. The principle of the Limit, however,
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being exactly the same in both cases — namely, that it is the
Present Value of the Future Profit
When Money is used to Produce a Profit, it is expected that
the Profit will replace the Money advanced ; when Credit is used
to produce a Profit, it is expected that the Profit will redeem the
Debt incurred.
Hence Credit can do whatever Money can do; but we have
shown that Credit is the reverse of Money. Hence, in Mathe-
matical language, all the propositions which are true with respect
to Money, are equally true with respect to Credit, only with the
sign changed.
Exactly the same effects were produced in England by the use
of Banker's Notes. The success of the Bridgewater Canal had
exactly the same effects as the success of the Liverpool and
Manchester Railway, eighty years afterwards. The period from
1776 to 1796 was just as great an era in canal-making, as the
subsequent period in railway- building, considering the wealth of
the country at the respective times. In the course of twenty
years, England, from being the most backward country in Europe
in water communication, was covered with a network of canals
such as no other country but Holland can boast Burke says
that when he first came to London there were not twelve bankers
out of London. In 1793 there were 400. However, these
bankers, not having the solid constitution of the Scottish Banks,
were swept away in multitudes in the panics of 1793 and 1797.
But, nevertheless, though the bankers were swept away, the solid
results of their issues of Notes remained.
Thus, it is now clearly demonstrated that Credit may be used
as Productive Capital, exactly in the same way, and in the same
sense, and for all the purposes that Money is.
Remarks on the Scottish System of Cash Credits.
All these marvellous results, which have raised Scotland from
the lowest depth of barbarism up to her present proud position,
in the space of 200 years, are the children of pure Credit. It is
no exaggeration, but a melancholy truth, that, at the period
of the Revolution, in 1688, and the foundation of the Bank of
Scotland, in 1695, partly owing to such a series of disasters as
cannot be paralleled in the history of any other independent
nation: partly owing to its position on the very outskirts of
civilisation, and far-removed from the humanising influence of
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254 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
commerce : divided into two nations, aliens in blood and language :
Scotland was the most utterly barbarous and lawless country in
Europe. And it is equally undeniable that the two great causes
of her rapid rise in civilisation and wealth have been her systems
of National Education and Banking.
Her system of Banking has been of infinitely greater service to
her than mines of gold and silver. Mines of the precious metals
would probably only have demoralised her people, and made them
more savage than they were before. But her Banking system has
tended immensely to call forth every manly virtue. It has taught
them industry, steadiness, and moral rectitude. In the Character
of her own people Scotland has found Wealth infinitely more
beneficial to her than all the mines of Mexico and Peru.
The express function of the Banks is to create Credits, Incor-
poreal entities, created out of Nothing, for a transitory existence ;
and when they have performed their functions, vanishing again
into the Nothing from whence they came. And has not this
Credit been Capital? Will any one, with these results staring
him in the face, believe that there are some persons who are
supposed to be Economists who maintain that the results of Credit
are purely imaginary ? That Credit conduces nothing to Production
and the increase of Wealth? That Credit only transfers existing
Capital? But even if it did no more than that, it has been shewn
that Circulation or Transfer is one species of Production;
as is, indeed, now admitted by all Economists of note. And that
those persons who say that Credit is Capital are such puzzle-
headed dolts as to maintain that the same thing can be in two
places at once!
Circulating Credits of all kinds have exactly the same effects
as Money, both in circulating commodities, and in promoting the
formation of new products. And they may be used as Productive
Capital exactly in the same way, and in the same sense, as
Money is.
It must be observed that all these Cash Credits are for a distinct
purpose, quite different from the discount of Mercantile Paper.
The marvellous results they have produced are due to a system
of pure Accommodation Paper. They are not founded on
any previous transactions ; nor are they for the purpose of trans-
ferring existing products. They are created for the express purpose
of bringing New products into existence, which, but for them,
would either have had no existence at all ; or, at all events, would
have been deferred for a very long period, until solid Money could
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have been accumulated to effect them. They are founded on
exactly the same principles as the discount of Mercantile Bills.
In discounting Mercantile Bills, the banker merely buys up the
Right to a future payment, to be made out of the profits of the
transaction. In creating Cash Credits, the banker merely buys
up the Right to a future payment, to be made out of the future
profits of the land, or other public works.
The invention of Cash Credits has advanced the wealth of
Scotland by centuries. We have an enormous mass of Exchange-
able Property created out of Nothing by the mere will of the
Bank and its customers, which produces all the effects of solid
Gold and Silver; and when it has done its work, it vanishes again
into Nothing, at the will of the same persons who called it into
existence. Hence, we see that the mere will of man has created
vast masses of Wealth out of Nothing ; and, then having served
their purpose, they are Decreated into the Nothing from whence
they came ; which are
* Melted into air, into thin air."
But their solid results have by no means failed —
M Like the baseless fabric of a vision, leaving not a wreck behind."
On the contrary, their solid results have been vast tracts of
barren moor converted into smiling fields of waving corn; the
manufactures of Glasgow, Dundee, and Paisley; the unrivalled
steamships of the Clyde; great public works of all sorts — roads,
canals, bridges, harbours, docks, railways, and many others; and
poor young men raised up into princely merchants.
What the Nile is to Egypt, that has her Banking System been
to Scotland; and it was fortunate for her that the foundations of
her prosperity were laid broad and deep before the gigantic fallacy
was dreamt of that the Issues of Banks should be inexorably
restricted to the amount of gold they displace; that no increase
of money can be of any use to a country; and before Mill had
proclaimed to the world that to create Credit in excess of specie is
Robbery!
The reader will now perceive the gigantic utility of the £1 Note
system to Scotland; and comprehend the consternation and fury
of the Scottish people, when various attempts have been made by
Parliament to suppress them.
When Parliament suppressed £1 Notes in England, in conse-
quence of the evils they were alleged to produce, owing to the
bad organisation of the English Banking System, before the
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256 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. IL
monopoly of the Bank of England was first broken up in 1826,
it was intended to have suppressed them also in Scotland. But all
Scotland rose up against it ; and, headed by Malachi Malagrowther,
raised such a commotion that an inquiry was granted, which first
made the Scottish system of Banking understood, and the attempt
was abandoned. Still, however, constant jeers and gibes were
addressed to the Scottish people, by persons who knew nothing
about the subject, about their fatuous attachment to their dirty
£1 Notes. But the Scottish people knew their value to the
country far better than their assailants. The Scots knew that
the prosperity of their country was bound up with the Cash
Credits; and Cash Credits were bound up with the issue of £1
Notes. To have suppressed the Scotch £1 Notes at that time
would have destroyed two-thirds of the business of the Banks. The
extent of commerce in Scotland at that time was not sufficient to
support the public Banks. It was stated that at that time two-
thirds of the business of the Scottish Banks consisted in Cash
Credits ; though we are informed that now, in consequence of the
great development of commerce, the ratio of Cash Credits to the
mercantile business of the Banks has considerably diminished.
Happily, however, no such attempts will ever be made again,
now that the subject is better understood. Parliament is, however,
justified in taking any measures it may be deemed necessary to
secure their perfect safety and convertibility. So completely has
the tide of opinion changed, that the question is now whether
£1 Notes can be introduced into England. But with the present
transitional state of Banking in England, it is premature to discuss
that question.
THE CHANNEL OF CIRCULATION.
The quantity of the Circulating Medium, or the amount of
Money and Credit, representing the Indebtedness, or the balances
which arise from the unequal changes of products and services
(Money), is frequently termed by Adam Smith and other writers
the Channel of Circulation.
The Channel of Circulation is filled with some Material
(counting written and unwritten Credit as identical); and Prices
are estimated by the Quantity of this Material, which is given in
exchange for any Economic Quantities.
Let us suppose that gold alone was used at any time to represent
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Debt, and fill the Channel of Circulation. This gold is divided
into certain pieces of fixed weight and quality, termed Coins ; and
Prices are estimated in these Coins.
But suppose that at any time gold was discontinued, and Silver
substituted as the representative of Debt ; and suppose that Coins
were struck of silver of exactly the same weight as the Gold
ones.
Then, as Silver is, at the present moment, about thirty-five times
less valuable than gold, it would require thirty-five times as many
Silver coins to represent any amount of Debt, as it would Gold
coins. And Prices would rise thirty-five fold; but other products
would still preserve the same relations among themselves. Hence,
though Prices would rise, yet the Values of products with respect to
each other would remain the same.
Again, suppose that Silver was taken away as the representative
of Debt, and Copper substituted ; and Copper coins struck of the
same weight as the previous Gold and Silver ones, and called by the
same name. Then prices would be estimated in Copper coins;
and as Copper is about 900 times less valuable than Gold, prices
estimated in Copper would rise to about 900 times their amount in
Gold. But the relative value of all other commodities would
remain the same.
Now as the value of gold, as representing Debt, depends on the
quantity of gold which represents any amount of Debt, it would
manifestly follow that if the quantity of gold which represented any
amount of Debt were greatly increased, the Value of Gold would
greatly diminish. If Gold became as plentiful as Silver, Gold
would have no more value than Silver. Consequently, even while
the weight and quality of the Coins remained the same, Gold
would fall to the thirty-fifth part of its former value as a Purchasing
Power.
So if Gold became as plentiful as Copper, it would have no more
Value, or Purchasing power, than Copper ; that is, it would fall to
about the 900th part of its former value.
Thus, in a general way, if any quantity of Stuff of any sort is
used to represent any quantity of Debt at any time; and if the
quantity of Stuff is greatly increased, while the quantity of Debt
remains the same, it necessarily produces a great diminution in the
Value of the Stuff, or a general rise of Prices.
But the quantity of Stuff which represents Debt, and fills the
Channel of Circulation, need not be all of the same material. It
may be partly Gold, partly Silver, and partly Copper; and Prices
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258 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
will be estimated by the whole quantity of Stuff which fills the
Channel of Circulation, and not any particular portion of it
In modern times, a new kind of Stuff is employed to a gigantic
extent, to fill the Channel of Circulation ; and that is Credit ; or,
Rights of Action in various forms.
With respect to Credit, there is a most important observation to
be made; Credits in some countries are made payable in Gold,
and, in some countries, in Silver.
Now, Credits payable in Gold — which we may term Gold Credits
— are of exactly the same value as Gold ; and Credits payable in
Silver — which we may term Silver Credits — are of exactly the same
Value as Silver.
Hence the Value of Gold throughout the world is determined
not only by the actual quantity of Gold; but by the aggregate
quantity of Gold, and all Gold Credits.
So the Value of Silver throughout the world is determined not
only by the actual quantity of Silver; but by the aggregate quantity
of Silver, and all Silver Credits.
And, furthermore, the Value of Gold compared to Silver is
determined not only by the relative quantities of Gold and Silver
themselves ; but by the ratio of the aggregate of Gold, and all Gold
Credits, compared to the aggregate of Silver, and all Silver Credits.
It is the enormous creation of Credit in modern times, in the
form of Mercantile Credits and Banking Credits, which has so
prodigiously raised the prices of commodities, and diminished the
rate of interest in the two last centuries in this and in many
countries.
It is shown that the quantity of Credit which is used, and in
circulation, in this country, is at least one hundred times the
amount of Metallic Coin.
Furthermore, there are in some countries, such as Russia,
Argentina, and others, vast quantities of Inconvertible Paper
Money; this Paper Money is an Independent standard, just like
Gold and Silver; it is almost everywhere at a heavy discount as
compared to Specie ; but it is nevertheless a standard at its Value
in Specie.
And the total aggregate of all the Gold and Gold Credits — all
the Silver and Silver Credits — all the Copper — all the Inconvertible
Paper Money and Paper Money Credits — constitutes the Circu-
lating Medium or Currency of the world in which prices are
estimated.
Hence the thorough comprehension of the principles and
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mechanism of the colossal system of Credit is the very foundation
of modern Economics.
It is the quantity of Credit which in modern times has the
greatest influence on Prices — far greater than the quantity of Gold
and Silver ; and variations in the quantity of Credit produce more
changes in the value of commodities than any changes in the
quantity of Gold and Silver ; and it is the abuses of Credit which
produce those terrible calamities known as Commercial Crises and
Monetary Panics.
CHEQUE.
A Cheque is one form of Incorporeal Property ; it is a Jus
in personam.
When a customer pays in money to his account with his banker,
or discounts a Bill of Exchange with him, the Money and the
Bill of Exchange become the absolute property of the banker,
to use in any way he pleases for his own purposes. In exchange
for them he creates a Credit in his books, which in the technical
language of banking is termed a Deposit. These Credits, or
Deposits, are the price the banker pays for the Money or the
Bill. That is, the banker issues a Right of Action against himself
to his customer, by which he engages to pay the amount in money
on demand to his customer, and at the same time authorizes him to
transfer the Right of Action to anyone he pleases, and engages
to pay the transferee the money on demand in the same way
as he does to his own customer.
For the sake of convenience these Banking Credits, or Deposits,
may be transferred by paper documents of two forms. 1. The
banker may give his customer his own Promissory Note, engaging
to pay to his customer, or order, or bearer, a certain sum of money
on demand. These are termed Bankers' Notes. 2. He may
authorize his customer to write him a Note, directing him to
pay any other person, or order, or bearer, on demand a certain
sum of money. These Notes were formerly called Cash Notes ; in
modern usage they are termed Cheques. These Bankers' Notes
and Cheques may circulate in commerce like money, and effect
any number of exchanges, until they are paid off and extinguished.
Bankers' Notes and Cheques form an integral part of the
Circulating Medium or Currency. They are termed in Law
Valuable Securities.
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260 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
CHOSE-IN-ACTION.
The blunder committed by Mill, Capps, and many others, in
holding the Funds to be a Mortgage on the land and its products \
and that committed by Stanley Jevons, Roscher, and many others,
in holding that Bills of Exchange are titles to property ; show such
ignorance of the elementary principles of Jurisprudence and
Mercantile Law, and is so important as regards Economics, that it
will be of advantage to explain it fully for the benefit of lay readers,,
and to set before them the nature of a Chose-in-action.
Thus it is said (Termes de la Ley, Chose-in-action) — "Thing in-
action is when a man hath cause, or may bring an action for some
duty due to him, as an action of debt upon an Obligation, Annuity,
or Rent .... and because they are things whereof a man is not
possessed, but for the recovery of them is driven to his action, they
are called things in action."
So also (Stephens Blacks/one, part ii. ch. i) — "We will proceed
next to take a short view of the nature of property in action, which
is where a man has not the enjoyment (either actual or constructive)
of the thing in question, but merely a right to receive it by a suit or
action at law; from whence the thing so recoverable is called a
thing (or chose) in action. Thus money due on a bond is a
c/iose-in-action, for a Right to claim the money vests whenever it
comes payable; but there is no possession till recovered by course of
law, unless payment be voluntarily made."
This is not quite correct. It is not the money due which is the
chose-in-action, but the Right to recover it. A chose-in-action is
simply a right-of-action, as appears more clearly in the next citation.
Thus it said {Blount, Law Did.) — "Chose-in-action is a thing
Incorporeal and only a Right, as an Annuity, Obligation for Debt
.... Chose-in-action may also be called chose-in-suspense, because
it has no real existence in being, nor can be properly said to be in
our possession."
Jurists of all nations include Abstract Rights of sorts, and among
them Rights of Action or Debts, as Wealth, Goods, Chattels,
Vendible Commodities, Merchandise.
Pothier carefully warned his readers against supposing that a
Creditor has any Right or Property in the possessions of his Debtor.
Thus the Funds are choses-in-action, because the fundholders have
a mere Right of Action against the State as a Persona to demand a
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C] Circulating Medium : Currency 261
sum of money, but they have no right to any of the actual property
of the State. So a Bill of Exchange or any Debt is a chose-in-aetiony
as it is a mere Right of Action against the person of the debtor. In ;
a chose-in-action there must be a positive Right to demand a specific
sum of money or other thing from some certain person^
Thus Shares in Commercial Companies, Copyrights, Patents, &c,
are not choses-in-action, because they are mere Rights to contingent
and uncertain profits.
But Mortgage Deeds, Bills of Lading, Dock Warrants, Pawn-
brokers' Tickets, are choses-in-possession, because they are titles to
specific things.
CIRCULATING MEDIUM: CURRENCY.
We shall consider the terms Circulating Medium and Cur-
rency, which are both of modern origin, together. The meaning
of these terms has, in recent times, given rise to many controversies;
but they are always admitted to be synonymous, consequently, if we
can positively determine the meaning of one of them, that will also
necessarily determine the meaning of the other.
The term Circulating Medium does not occur in Adam
Smith. It seems to have come into use in the last decade of the
last century. The first occasion on which we have met with it is in
the debate on the Bank Restriction Act of 1797. Mr. Fox said,
" He wished that gentlemen, instead of amusing themselves with
new terms of 'Circulating Medium ' and the like, &c," which shows
that it must then have been of very recent origin.
Mr. Pitt, in his reply, said : " As so much has been said on the
nature of a Circulating Medium, he thought it necessary to notice
that he did not, for his own part, take it to be of that empirical
kind which had been generally described. It appeared to him to
consist of Anything that answered the great purposes of trade and
commerce, whether in specie, paper, or any other terms that might
be used." It is quite evident, therefore, that Mr. Pitt included
under the term Circulating Medium or Currency, Money and Credit
in all its forms, both written and unwritten. This continued to be
the invariable usage in all Parliamentary debates until Lord Overs tone
and his sect perverted men's minds with a fantastic definition of his
own, which he beguiled Sir Robert Peel into adopting.
To understand the meaning of Circulating Medium, Currency,
Circulation, and Economics in general as a Science, we must revert
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262 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
to the original concept of it by its founders, the Economists,£as the
Science of Exchanges or Commerce, which it was understood to be
by everybody, until J. B. Say, followed by J. S. Mill, utterly ruined
it as a Science, but to which all the most intelligent Economists in
the world are now reverting, as the only one by which it can be
created as a Science, but which is absolutely unintelligible on the
system of J. B. Say and John Stuart Mill.
The Economists only admitted an Exchange to be where a
material product was exchanged for a material product, i.e. a Barter;
that is, where each side obtained a Satisfaction.
But in modern times such Exchanges are comparatively rare.
Persons usually want to obtain things from others, while those
others want nothing from them. To obviate the inconveniences
which would arise if no one could get what he wanted, unless he
could supply that other person with what he wanted in return at
the same time, people hit upon the plan of adopting some commo-
dity which should be universally exchangeable. The buyer therefore
gave the seller in exchange for his product an Equivalent in this
universally exchangeable merchandise, so that he could get any
satisfaction he pleased from anyone who could render it.
This universally exchangeable merchandise is termed Money.
The person who has got the Money has, no doubt, got the equiva-
lent in value for the satisfaction he rendered to the other person ;
but he has not got a satisfaction himself; his desire is not consum-
mated or completed. In order to obtain a satisfaction, he must
exchange away the Money he has received for some product he
does desire. Hence the Economists termed a Sale a Demi-
Exchange.
Le Trosne says, "There is this difference between an Exchange
and a Sale, that in an Exchange everything is consummated or com-
pleted (consomme) for each party. They possess the thing which
they desired to procure, and they have only to enjoy it. In the
Sale, on the contrary, it is only the purchaser who has attained his
object, because it is only he who is in a position to enjoy. But
everything is not ended for the seller."
And again, " Exchange arrives directly at its object, which is com-
pletion (consommation) ; it has only two terms, and is ended in one
contract. But a contract in which Money intervenes is not
completed (consommt), but it is necessary that the seller should
become a buyer, either himself, or by the interposition of the person
to whom he transfers the Money. There are therefore, to arrive
at completion (consommation), which is the ultimate object, at
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C] Circulating Medium : Currency 263
least four terms and three contractants, of whom one intervenes
twice."
When, however, the person who had sold his product for Money,
and therefore furnished a satisfaction to the other party, had himself
exchanged away the Money and obtained a product for it, he too
had acquired a satisfaction which he could enjoy, and the Exchange
was completed (consomnU).
For this reason Money was called the Medium of Exchange.
This Sale the Economists termed Circulation. Sale or Circula-
tion the Economists defined to mean the Exchange of a product for
Money. Circulation meant a Purchase with Money, in contradis-
tinction to the exchange of products or barter.
Hence Money was also termed the Circulating Medium, or
the Medium of Circulation.
Thus the Economists said that when a person had sold his
product for Money, though he had obtained an equivalent in value,
he had only acquired a Right to obtain a satisfaction, and thus that
Money is only the highest and most general form of Credit.
The verb to Circulate, like many others in English, has both an
active and a neuter meaning.
1. It means that which circulates commodities, />., which causes
commodities to circulate ; where it is an active verb.
2. That which circulates itself; where it is a neuter verb.
Smith uses the word Circulate in both senses, in different
passages. Thus, speaking of Gold and Silver, he says — " Their use
consists in Circulating commodities.
"The great wheel of Circulation is altogether different from the
goods circulated by it. The revenue of the society consists
altogether in these goods, and not in the wheel that circulates
them." In these two passages the verb Circulate is active.
A little further on he speaks of the different sorts of Paper Money.
He says that the Circulating notes of banks and bankers are best
known : where circulating is neuter.
In the following sentence both senses occur : " Let us suppose, for
example, that the whole Circulating money of some particular
country amounted at a particular time to one million sterling, that
sum being sufficient for Circulating the whole annual products
of their land and labour. "
The ordinary meaning of words in scientific language, leaves no
possible doubt as to which is the true meaning of circulate in the
expression Circulating Medium. A medium, in scientific language,
means some middle thing by which something else is effected. Thus
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264 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Money is termed the Medium of Exchange, because it is the
Medium by which Exchanges are effected. Hence the Circulating
Medium is the Medium by which the circulation of commodities is
effected.
Now it has just been shown that by Circulation the Economists
meant Sales. And how are Sales effected? By the means of
Money and Credit in all its forms. Buying with Money effects the
Circulation or Sale of commodities ; but buying with Credit equally
effects the Sale or Circulation of commodities, in whatever form the
Credit may be, either written or unwritten.
The importance of fixing the meaning of circulating consists in
this, that an immense portion of Credit circulates commodities, and
yet it does not circulate itself; thus all the book debts of traders
have purchased, or circulated, commodities, and are therefore a part
of the Circulating Medium ; and yet they do not circulate themselves
until they are put into the form of Bills of Exchange.
Hence Money and Credit are equally Circulating Medium, and
the total of the Circulating Medium comprehends the total amount
of Money and Credit in all its forms and varieties, both written and
unwritten.
On the Meaning of Currency.
In all the Parliamentary discussions during the war and afterwards,
the words Currency and Circulating Medium were always used as
equivalent and synonymous. Thus we have seen that Mr. Pitt, in
the debate of 1797, said that Circulating Medium comprehended
Specie, Paper, and other forms of Credit, which could only mean
book debts.
So in the great Currency debate in the House of Commons in
1822, Lord Titchfield said — M When it was considered to how great
an extent these contrivances had been practised in the various modes
of Verbal, Book, and Circulating Credit, it was easy to see
that the country had received a great addition to its Currency.
This addition to the Currency would have the same effect as if Gold
had been increased from the mines."
The meaning of the term Circulating Medium is perfectly clear
and simple, and free from the shadow of doubt The meaning
of the word Currency, which all writers admit to be synonymous
with Circulating Medium, is, however, much more recondite, and has
given rise to many protracted controversies in recent times, which we
shall have to consider presently. We shall now merely explain the
real meaning of the word.
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C] Circulating Medium : Currency 265
The word Currency is a technical term in Mercantile and
Constitutional Law, and the following is the true meaning of
" Current " and "Currency" in English Law.
It is a general rule of law that a person cannot transmit to any
one else any better title to a thing than he has himself.
As it is said — " Nemo plus juris ad alium transferre potest quara
ipse haberet"
"No one can transmit to another a greater right than he has
himself.n
It is also a general rule of law that if a person loses a thing, or has
it stolen from him, he does not thereby lose the property in it
Consequently he can not only receive it from the finder or thief
himself, but also, if found in the possession of anyone else, to whom
the finder or thief has disposed of it, even though that person bought
it, or took it in pledge, honestly and in good faith, and gave
full value for it, and not knowing that it was not the lawful property
of the seller or pledger. This right of recovery is termed the Jus
vindicandi in Roman Law.
But to this rule of law Money was always, from the very necessity
of the case, an exception. Business and commerce could not go on
if the seller of goods had always to inquire into the right of the
purchaser to the money he possesses. If money has been lost or
stolen, the true owner may recover it if he finds it in the possession
of the finder or thief. But if the finder or thief has once purchased
goods with it, and the shopkeeper has taken it honestly in the usual
course of business, and without knowing it has been stolen, he can
retain it against the true owner, even though he should be able to
identify it. That is, the person who acquires Money honestly in
the usual course of business has a good title to it, even though the
transferor had not. Thus it is said in law that "the property in
Money passes by delivery.19 Thus, after Money has once been
passed away in commerce to an innocent receiver, the true owner of
it has lost his Jus vindicandi.
It is this peculiarity which affects the property in Money which
passes by delivery, which is denoted by the words Current and
Currency in English law. And when an Act of Parliament
declares that any instrument shall be " Current," it means that the
property in it shall pass by delivery to the innocent purchaser or
pledgee.
This Quality of Currency is also called Negotiability.
And when the representatives of Money, such as Bank-notes,
Bills of Exchange, &c, came into use, the Law Merchant applied
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266 Fundamental Concepts and Axiotns [Bk. II.
the same principle of Currency to them. They are like Money in
so far as this, that the property in them passes by delivery. Thus
if they are lost or stolen, the true owner may recover them if they
are still in the hands of the finder or thief; but if the finder or thief
succeeds in passing them away, or pledging them for value in the
ordinary course of business to an innocent purchaser, that innocent
purchaser acquires the property in them, and may retain them
against the true owner, who has lost his Jus vindicandi equally as in
the case of Money, and enforce payment of them from all the
parties liable on them.
This doctrine has been affirmed in a whole series of cases in the
Courts of Law, which we shall notice shortly.
It follows from this that in strict law this principle of Currency
can only be applied to those Rights of Action which are recorded on
some material, such as paper. An abstract Right cannot be lost,
mislaid, or stolen, or passed away in commerce by hand. For a
Right of Action to be Currency in strict law, it must be recorded on
some material, so as to be capable of being carried in the hand or
in the pocket, or put away in a drawer, or dropped in the street, or
stolen from the drawer or the pocket, or picked up in the street and
carried away by the finder or thief, and transferred by hand in
commerce.
So far as regards Mercantile Law, then, there is no difficulty ; the
meaning of the word is perfectly clear. But if the word Currency is
used to denote a certain class of Economic Quantities, synonymous
with Circulating Medium, a difficulty arises; because there is an
immense mass of Credit which has produced exchanges and has
circulated commodities, and is therefore Circulating Medium, which
is not recorded on any material at all in such a way that it can be
lost or stolen, and carried off and transferred in commerce by
manual delivery.
Thus the gigantic mass of Banking Credits, and the Book Debts
of traders, have all effected Sales or Circulation, and therefore they
are all Circulating Medium; but they have not the attribute of
Currency in a legal sense, because they cannot be mislaid, lost,
or stolen ; and picked up or stolen from the pocket, or the drawer,
and passed away in commerce by manual delivery. So also private
Debts between persons, termed Verbal Credits; they only arise
from the transfer of goods or money, or from some service per-
formed ; and they exist equally whether they are recorded on paper
or not. They are equally Circulating Medium. Private Debts
amongst traders effect sales and affect prices exactly like so much
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C] Circulating Medium: Currency 267
money. Consequently, though they are not Currency in strict law,
yet if that word is still to be retained as a scientific term, denoting
a certain class of Economic Quantities, synonymous with Circu-
lating Medium, they must all be included in that term, as was
always done in the Parliamentary debates ; because they can always
be recorded on paper at pleasure, and put into circulation; and
then they actually do become Currency in strict law, and their
nature and effects are exactly the same, whether they are recorded
on paper or not.
Decisions in the Courts of Law respecting the meaning of Currency.
The meaning of the word Currency has acquired so much im-
portance, in consequence of the Bank Charter Act of 1844 being
based upon a peculiar definition of it, which will have to be
examined hereafter, that it will be more satisfactory to place before
readers a rksumb of the decisions of the Courts of Law as to the
meaning of the term.
Bank Notes. — In Miller v. Race (1 Bun. 452), confirming
Anonymous (1 Lord Raymond, 738), the Court of King's Bench
decided that Bank Notes have the Credit and Currency of Money,
to all intents and purposes. "An action would lie against the
finder — that no one disputes; but not after the note had been
passed away in Currency. An action would not lie against the
defendant, because he took it in the course of Currency ; and it
therefore could not be followed in his hands. It never shall be
followed into the hands of a person who bond-fide took it in the
course of Currency. A Bank Note is constantly and universally,
both at home and abroad, treated as Money, as cash; and it is
necessary for the purposes of commerce that their Currency
should be established and maintained.1'
Cheques. — In Grant v. Vaughan (3 Barr. 15 16) the Court
unanimously held that Cheques possess the attribute of Currency
exactly like Bank Notes.
Bills of Exchange. — In Peacock v. Rhodes (2 Douglas, 633)
the Court decided that Bills of Exchange possess the attribute of
Currency exactly like Bank Notes. Lord Mansfield said, "The
holder of a Bill of Exchange, or Promissory Note, is not to be
considered as the assignee of the payee. An assignee must take
the thing assigned, subject to all the equity to which the original
party was subject. If this rule applied to Bills and Promissory
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268 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Notes, it would stop their Currency. The law is settled that a
holder, coming fairly by a Note or Bill, has nothing to do with
the transaction between the original parties. I see no difference
between a Note indorsed in blank, and one payable to bearer.
They both go by delivery, and possession proves property in both
cases."
In Collins v. Martin (B. & P. 648) the same doctrine of Currency
was applied to pledging Bills equally as to selling them. Eyre,
C.J., said, "For the purpose of rendering Bills of Exchange
negotiable, the Right of Property in them passes with the Bills.
Every holder of the Bills takes the Property, and his title is stamped
on the Bills themselves. The Property and the possession are
inseparable. This was necessary to make them negotiable ; in this
respect they differ essentially from goods, of which the property and
the possession are in different persons/1
Foreign Bonds. — In Gorgier v. Mieville (3 B. & C.) Foreign
Bonds payable to the holder were decided to possess the attribute
of Currency, exactly as Bank Notes and Bills indorsed in
blank.
Exchequer Bills.— In Wookey v. Pole (4 B. & Aid. 1), Ex-
chequer Bills payable in blank, or order, were also decided to
possess the attribute of Currency. The question was whether
Exchequer Bills followed the law of goods, in which there is the Jus
vindicandi, or the law of Money, in which there is no Jus vindicandi,
except in the case of the owner finding it in the possession of the
thief or finder. The Court held that Exchequer Bills follow the law
of Money. Holroyd, J., said, "It has long been fully settled that
Bank Notes, or Bills, Drafts on bankers, Bills of Exchange, or Pro-
missory Notes, either payable to order, and indorsed in blank, or
payable to bearer, when taken bond, fidey and for a valuable con-
sideration, pass by delivery, and vest a right in the transferee,
without regard to the title, or want of title, in the person transferring
them These authorities shew that not only Money
itself may pass, and the Right to it may arise by Currency alone ;
but further, that these mercantile instruments, which entitle the
bearer of them to money, may also pass, and the Right to them
arise in like manner by Currency or Delivery. ... We
next consider the nature and effect of the instrument, both as to the
property which it concerns, and as to its Negotiability by law . .
. . . The instrument is created by the Statute, 48 Geo. III., c. 1,
and is thereby made Negotiable and Current
The case therefore stands thus : The Exchequer Bill was a Current
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C] Circulating Medium : Currency 269
and Negotiable instrument for the payment of Money. Now
Money passes from one person to another by reason of its Cur-
rency, and for that reason only, and not because it has no earmark,
it cannot be recovered from the person to whom it has passed.
The Exchequer Bill, therefore, seems to me upon the same principle
to follow the nature of Money, for which it is a security."
In Ingham v. Primrose (7 CB.N.S. p. 8) Williams, J., said : —
"It is, we think, settled law that if the defendant had drawn a
Cheque, and if before he had issued it, he had lost it, or had it
stolen from him, and it had afterwards found its way into the hands
of a holder for value, without notice, who had sued the defendant
upon it, he would have had no answer to the action. So if he had
indorsed a Bill in blank, or a Bill payable to his order, and if it had
been lost or stolen before he had delivered it to any one as indorsee.
The reason is that such Negotiable Instruments have, by the law
merchant, become part of the Mercantile Currency of the
country ; and in order that this may not be impeded, it is requisite
that innocent holders for value should have a right to enforce pay-
ment of them against those who, by making them, have caused
them to be part of the Currency/'
In Whistler v. Foster (14 CB.N.S. 248) Willes, J., said, "The
general rule of law is undoubted, that no one can transfer a better
title than he himself possesses : Nemo dat quod non habet To this
there are some exceptions, one of which arises out of the rule
of the law merchant as to Negotiable Instruments. These being
a part of the Currency, are subject to the same rule as Money."
In Shute v. Robins (1 M. and M. 133) Lord Tenterden spoke
of bankers' paper as being part of the Circulating Medium of
the country.
In Lang v. Smith (7 Bing. 284) Tindall, C. J., said, "The first
question was, whether the instruments in dispute had acquired
from the course of dealing pursued in the City the character of
Bank Notes, Cheques, Bills of Exchange, Dividend Warrants, Bills
or other instruments which form part of the Currency of the
country."
In Goodwin v. Robarts (L. R., 10 Excheq. 377) scrip entitling the
bearer to demand Bonds from a Foreign Government were also
decided to possess the attribute of Currency.
These extracts authoritatively decide the true meaning of the
word Currency. It means that the Property to which this
attribute is attached is an exception to the general jus vindieandi
which attaches to goods.
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270 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
It means that when once this class of property has been acquired
by a purchaser honestly in the way of business, the property in
it passes by delivery. And this is the sole meaning of the word
Currency.
These cases decide that Money and all written Securities for
money made transferable by the parties to them are all included
under the term Currency.
We may now observe that it is a great misfortune that the word
Currency has established such a hold in Economics. Because
it is not an Economical term at all. Circulating Medium is a
technical term in Economics, and denotes a certain class of
Quantities about which there can be neither mistake nor doubt
But Currency is a pure term of Mercantile Law, and has nothing to
do with Economics. Circulating Medium is the name of a certain
class of Quantities, but Currency is an attribute of certain
Quantities, and to call the Quantities themselves by the name of an
attribute is as absurd as to call a Wheel a Rotation, or a Horse
a Velocity. Supposing that the Jus vindicandi were taken away
by law, everything would be Currency; suppose that the Jus
vindicandi were accorded to Money and Securities for Money,
nothing would be Currency.
Nevertheless the word is too firmly established to be abolished,
and, therefore, the only plan is to remember that it is absolutely
synonymous with Circulating Medium, and includes Money and
Credit in all its forms, both written and unwritten.
On Banking Credits, or Deposits, as Money and Currency.
It has been shown above that the term Circulating Medium
means the medium which circulates commodities, and hence,
ex vi termini, it necessarily includes Money and Credit in all its
forms both written and unwritten, because if a person buys goods on
Credit, or by issuing a Right of Action, that Credit or Right of
action circulates the goods equally, whether it is recorded on paper
or not.
So we have shown that Money, and all Rights to Money recorded
on some material which can be lost, or stolen, and passed away
by manual delivery, are included under the term Currency.
A superficial difficulty, however, arises when the term Currency is
used as synonymous with Circulating Medium, because there
is a vast mass of Credits which have circulated goods, and are
therefore Circulating Medium, which are not recorded on any
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tangible and transferable material, and therefore are not Currency
in its strict legal sense, such as Deposits, or Debts in bankers'
books, and Book Debts in traders' shops, and other kinds of verbal
Credit
The slightest reflection, however, will show that there is no real
difficulty in the case. A Right of Action, Credit, or Debt is exactly
the same in its nature, whether recorded on paper or not And it
can be bought and sold, or exchanged, with perfect facility in either
form. In Roman Law, in which written instruments were not used,
if it was wanted to transfer a debt, the Creditor, the Debtor, and the
Transferee met together : the Creditor transferred the Debt orally to
the Transferee, and the Debtor orally agreed to pay the Transferee, in-
stead of his original Creditor. This was a complete and valid
transfer of the Debt. The same mode of proceeding is equally
a valid transfer of the Debt in English law. But in many cases
this is a clumsy and inconvenient way of transferring a Debt
It is infinitely more convenient to write it down on paper : and then
it can be transferred like Money and any other chattel. But
whether the transfer be effected orally or by written document can
make no possible difference in the nature of the Right Recording
a Credit, Debt, or Right of Action, therefore, on paper does not
create any new Right, it merely records an already existing Right
on paper. Payment, therefore, by means of a Bank Note, or
Cheque, or Bank Credit, termed a Deposit, is absolutely the same.
Now, Bank Notes and Cheques are Currency in strict legal phrase-
ology: but Bank Credits, or Deposits, are not Currency in strict
legal phraseology, because they cannot be lost, mislaid, stolen, and
passed away in commerce by manual delivery.
So also of a Book Debt in a tradesman's books. If a trades-
man buys goods from a merchant on credit, that Credit has
performed exactly the same function in Circulating the goods as
money: because we have shown that the word Circulation means
buying goods with Money or Credit: and the Credit has been
equally the medium of Circulation, or Sale, whether it is recorded
on paper or not: but it is not Currency because it cannot be
dropped in the street, stolen and transferred to some one else by
manual delivery.
Nevertheless, all these Book Credits, or Debts, in the books of
bankers and traders are exactly of the same nature as if they were
recorded as Circulating Paper, and they can always be recorded on
paper at the will of the parties : when they become Currency in the
strictest legal sense of the term.
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272 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
If, then, we are compelled to adopt this barbarism, and employ
the term Currency to denote a certain class of Economic Quanti-
ties, synonymous with Circulating Medium, it must, by the laws of
philosophy, be held to include Bank Credits, or Deposits, Book
Debts, and Verbal Credits of all sorts.
And this is exactly what Mercantile Law does. It treats any
form of Credit payable by a banker on demand, whether it be a
Bank Note, Cheque, or Deposit, as Money or cash. They are all
equally in the eye of the law payment : that is, none of them are
legal money : that is, a debtor cannot compel his Creditor to take
payment in them of a Debt : but if a Creditor chooses to do so, of
his own accord, without objection, they all stand on exactly the
same footing as payment.
With regard to Cheques, Lord Mansfield said, in Grant v.
Vaughan, that a Cheque is the same thing as a Bank Note.
In Pearce v. Davits^ Patteson, J., said that a Cheque operates as
payment until it has been presented and refused.
So in Jones v. Arthur (8 Dowe., 442) Coleridge, J., held that
tender of payment by Cheque is good unless objected to on that
account
In Bevan v. Hill (3 Camp., 381), where a person having accepted
a Cheque in payment and lost it, and the banker failed having funds
to meet the Cheque, Lord Ellenborough held that the Cheque was
payment.
The very same doctrine is true regarding a Bank Credit or
Deposit.
In Gillardv. Wise (5 B. and C, 134) Holroyd, J., said—" The
defendants instead of sending a clerk to receive cash for the notes,
sent them to the persons who ought to have paid them ; but they
sent them, not for the purpose of being paid in money, but of being
placed to their credit in account When that credit was given, the
legal effect was the same as if the notes had been paid to them in
money."
Thus a Right of Action against a banker, payable on demand, is in
the mercantile community considered as money, or cash, whether it
be in the form of a Bank Note, a Cheque, or simply a Bank Credit*
or Deposit ; and though, of course, in the strict legal sense, only the
two former are Currency, and yet in a philosophical sense, if we are
constrained to adopt the word, all three forms must be Currency.
And so in other points of law, Bank Notes and Bank Credits are
held to be included in the terms Money, or Cash. In the case
of Lord Aylesbury's Will, Lord Hardwicke held that Bank Notes
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G] Circulating Medium : Currency 273
passed under the title of cash; and in Miller v. Race, Lord
Mansfield said — "Bank Notes pass by a will which bequeaths all
testator's Money or Cash."
And the very same doctrine is held respecting a Bank Credit, or
Deposit, or a balance on a banking account.
Thus in Vaisey v. Reynolds (5 Russell, 12) the testator bequeathed
to his wife all his book debts, monies in hand; and to his executors,
all his monies out at interest or mortgage, notes of hand, or any
security whatever. Lord Lyndhurst said — " The testator has referred
to two descriptions of money, monies in hand, and monies out
at interest or mortgage, notes of hand, and other securities. The
balance in the banker's hands, though it carries interest, was not out
at interest or security, and it was in the same order and disposition
of the testator as if it had been deposited in his own drawer. It
must be inferred that the testator meant to pass it by one of the two
descriptions which he used. In no sense was it money as security,
and in a reasonable sense it was money in hand, and passed there-
fore to the wife."
So in Taylor v. Taylor (1 Jurist, 401), where the testator
bequeathed all his ready money, Lord Langdale said — "It is true
that in strict legal language, what is called money deposited at
a banker's, is nothing more than a Debt, and cannot be called ready
money; but in the ordinary language of mankind, money at a
banker's is called ready money, 'and we must construe a will accord-
ing to the ordinary language of mankind."
So again in Parker v. Marchant (1 Y. and C. 290), Bruce, V.C.,
said — " Undoubtedly an ordinary balance at a banker's is, in a sense,
a Debt due to him — certainly he may be sued for it as a Debt. But
it may be equally true that in a sense it is ready money The
term "Debt," however technically correct, is not colloquially or
familiarly applied to a balance at a banking-house. No man talks
of his banker in that character being indebted to him. Men speak-
ing of such a subject, say that they have so much at their banker's,
or so much in their banker's hands ; a mode of expression indicating
virtual possession, rather than the right to which the law applies the
term chosc-in-action Agreeing that the term (ready money) is
applicable to money in the purse or the house, I cannot agree that it
is confined to money so placed. Money paid into a banking-house
in the ordinary mode, is so paid for the purpose of being not safe
merely, but ready as well as safe." And consequently the V.C. held
that a Bank Credit, or Deposit, passed under the term "ready
money."
T
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274 Fundamental Concepts and Axiotns [Bk. II.
And this opinion was confirmed on appeal (i Phil., 356) by Lord
Lyndhurst — " Nobody can doubt that in the ordinary use of lan-
guage, money at a banker's would be considered as * ready money.'
Everybody speaks of the sum which he has at his banker's as
money : * My money at my banker's,' is the usual form of expression,
and if it is money at the banker's, it is emphatically ' ready money,'
because it is placed there for the purpose of being ready when
occasion requires; it is received upon the understanding that it
shall be so ready. If a man goes to his banker, the money is
counted out to him on the table. If he sends an order for the money
it is counted out to his servant, or the person in whose favour that
order is made. I consider, therefore, that it is strictly 'ready
money,' according to the ordinary acceptation of these terms among
mankind."
So in Manning v. Purcell (2 Sm. and Giff., 284) the question was
whether a balance on a current account, and a balance on a deposit
account, payable on demand, passed under the word moneys in
a will. Stuart, V.C., said — " The question as to the next subject
of gift, which the plaintiffs deny to be included in the gift of
'moneys,' is as to the balances of the testator at his banker's.
The testator seems to have had balances upon a current account,
and balances upon a deposit account Now the balance upon
the current account certainly passed. It is also my opinion that
the money, the evidence of which was the deposit notes, also passed
under the description of 'moneys.' It has been maintained in
argument, that the deposit notes are the vouchers given by the
bankers with whom the deposits were made, as security for money,
and they have been likened to the case of money secured by a
bond. It is said that the balance due is simply a Debt, and the
deposit notes are evidence of the debt ; just as a bond which shews
a debt, and binds the obligor to the payment of it. But money
deposited by a testator with his bankers, on a deposit account, the
balance carrying interest, is so much money at the disposal of the
testator, and is as readily accessible by him as moneys in an
ordinary current account. The fact that interest is allowed upon
these deposits is a reason for the depositor more reluctantly drawing
upon his deposit account, but in point of fact there is no distinction
at all shown to me upon the custom of bankers. The bankers
have been examined in this case, and the habit is so notorious as
this that it would not require evidence to shew that where a banker
holds money for which he gives a deposit note, it is just as
accessible to his customer as if it was held on a current account
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"If a customer, having a balance of ;£i 0,000 at his banker's,
wants pfiooo he must take a piece of paper and deliver it to the
bankers, before the bankers would pay him the money which they
hold for him. Now, with respect to the deposit-money, the customer
if he wants that money, or any part of it, must bring the deposit
receipt instead of an ordinary Cheque ; but that does not make it
less accessible to him than if the bankers held it liable to be paid
on Cheques. If the slightest doubt were cast upon the accessibility
of a depositor's money which a banker holds as deposit receipts,
it would soon put an end to the account altogether.
" My decision proceeds upon this, that as to the deposit notes, as
much as to the current account, the relation of banker and customer
exists ; that the banker, holding money of a customer, whether as a
deposit account or a current account, unless there is some express
contract to take it out of the ordinary case of deposit, holds it as
money ; and as money so readily accessible to the customer, or the
relation of banker and customer, that it is held to pass under the
description of money generally."
The importance and the practical bearing of these investigations
and decisions are evident All banking advances are made in the
first instance by creating Bank Credits or Deposits, in favour of the
customer. These Deposits are simply Rights of Action, or simple
contract Debts. Now these Rights of Action, Credits, or Debts, are
the "goods and chattels," or property of the customer, which are
exactly of the same value as money, because they can be always
exchanged for money instantly on demand. But the customer
wishes to use these Credits as money, and transfer them to someone
else. This may be done by writing them down on paper either as
Notes or Cheques. But it is evident that the property or " goods
and chattels" are identically the same, whether they are written
down on paper or not. Now, many persons seeing a material
Bank Note or Cheque, are willing to admit that they are cash.
But from the want of a little reflection, and ignorance of the
mechanism of banking, they feel a difficulty with regard to what
they see as Deposits. They admit that a Bank Note or a Cheque,
is an " Issue," and Currency or Circulating Medium, but they fail to
see that a Bank Credit is exactly in the same sense equally an
" Issue," " Currency," and Circulating Medium.
When unreflecting persons see so many. figures in a book, they are
sometimes startled at hearing them called Wealth, but, in fact, it is
not these figures in the ledger that are the Wealth; these figures
are only the evidence, the register, and the acknowledgment of so
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276 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
many Rights of Action, Credits, or debts, which are the property or
goods and chattels of the creditors of the banker ; these Rights of
action are just as much " issued " and in " circulation " as if they
were Notes ; they are equally Rights of Action to demand gold, and
it makes not the slightest difference in their nature whether they are
recorded as paper or not The figures in the book are a mere
reminder to the banker that he is bound to pay them in gold if
demanded.
Thus these Bank Credits, or Deposits, are a mass of Exchangeable
Property, like so much gold, or corn, or timber or any other, and
their value depends upon exactly the same thing as the value of any-
thing else ; whether they can be paid in gold on demand, and for
this reason they are termed Pecunia, Res, Bona, Merx in Roman
Law : xprjfjLaTa, irpdyixaroy dyaOd, owrta, oikos in Greek Law, and
Goods, Goods and Chattels, Chattels, Merchandise, Vendible Com-
modities, and Incorporeal Wealth in English Law ; and it was the
unanimous doctrine of Statesmen and Economists, until the time of
Lord Overstone and his sect, that Money and Credit in all its forms
and varieties, both written and unwritten, constitute the Currency
or Circulating Medium, which is amply confirmed by the decisions
of the Courts of Law which we have so copiously quoted.
On Lord Overstone's Definition of Currency.
We have now explained the true meaning of the words Circulating
Medium and Currency, and fortified our exposition by a series of
unanimous decisions of the Courts of Law, so as to render it
perfectly unassailable. The question, however, is of such im-
portance that we must now examine at length the doctrines of Lord
Overstone and his sect, as the whole monetary and banking system
of this country is at present based upon a peculiar definition of
theirs, and we must allow them to speak for themselves.
Disputes about the meaning of the term Currency began about
1800; but we need pay no attention to them, because they had
no practical effect.
The question, " What the term Currency includes ? " was vehem-
ently discussed before the Committee on Banking, in 1840; and
by this time a strong and influential party had adopted a certain
definition which prevailed with Sir Robert Peel, and upon which
the Bank Act of 1844 is founded.
The leaders of this party were Mr. Samuel Jones Loyd,
afterwards Lord Overstone, Mr. George Warde Norman, and
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Colonel Torrens; and we shall now let them explain their own
views.
Mr. George Warde Norman, a director of the Bank of England,
was asked:
Q. 1 69 1. Are there any grounds for considering the Deposits
of the Bank of England as Currency ? — No, I think not
Q. 1692. Do you consider that any Deposits, merely in their
character of Deposits, can be considered as Currency? — No, I
do not
Q. 1693. Will you state what, in your opinion, forms the dis-
tinction between Currency and Deposits ? — I consider that, looking
broadly at Deposits and Currency, they are quite distinct; they
have little to do with each other. But I conceive that the use
of Deposits is one of the banking expedients which is available
for economising Currency, along with a great many others. I do
not consider them as Currency, or Money. I ought to observe,
perhaps, to the Committee, that I employ the words "Money" and
" Currency " as synonymous. Deposits are used by means of
transfers made in the books of bankers ; and these afford the means
of adjusting and settling transactions, and pro tanto dispense with
a certain quantity of Money ; or they may be set off against each
other, from one banker to another, to a certain extent, and thus
produce the same effect Still they possess the essential qualities
of Money in a very low degree.
Q. 1694. Do you entertain a similar opinion as to Bills of
Exchange ? — Yes, exactly. I think they are also used to economise
Currency. I look upon them as banking expedients for that
purpose ; but they do not possess fully the qualities which I con-
sider Money to possess.
Q. 1695. Will you explain the difference between the functions
which Money will perform, and those which Bills of Exchange, or
Deposits, will perform? — To answer that question fully, one must,
I am afraid, take rather a wide view ; but I look upon it that the
three most essential qualities Money should possess are that it
should be in universal demand by everybody, in all times and in
all places ; that it should possess fixed value ; and that it should
be a perfect numerator. There are other qualities, but I think these
are the most essential. Now, when I look at all banking ex-
pedients, I find that they do not possess these qualities fully. They
possess them in a very low degree ; and therefore, as we see took
place in 1835, with a very large increase of the Deposits of the
Bank, the Circulation diminished ; and there was every appearance
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278 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. IL
of the effects of contraction; and there was an increased influx
of treasure ; and I conceive from that there were lower prices. By
a numerator, I mean that which measures the value of other com-
modities with the greatest possible facility. If we look at all these
banking expedients, we see that they possess the three qualities
which I have mentioned in a very much lower degree.
Q. 1696. Will you state in what respect? — I can only take them
one by one. A Bill of Exchange is an instrument commonly pay-
able at some future time : at a certain place : and to some particular
individual : it is of no use to any other individual, except it is in-
dorsed to him. A man cannot go into a shop and buy what he
wants: he could not pay his labourers with a Bill of Exchange.
The same with a banker's Deposit : he can do nothing of that sort
with that, he can do with less Money than he would otherwise em-
ploy if he has Bills of Exchange or bankers' Deposits: but he
cannot, with Bills of Exchange or bankers' Deposits, do whatever
he could with sovereigns and shillings. By a banker's Deposit, I
mean a Credit in a banker's books : nothing more or less than that
Mr. Samuel Jones Loyd, afterwards Lord Overstone, was asked—
Q. 2655. What is that you include in the term Circulation? — I
include in the term Circulation, metallic Coin, and paper Notes,
promising to pay the metallic Coin to bearer on demand.
Q. 2661. In your definition, then, of the word Circulation, you
do not include Deposits ? — No, I do not.
Q. 2662. Do you include Bills of Exchange? — No, I do not
Q. 2663. Why do you not include Deposits? — To answer that
question, I believe I must be allowed to revert to first principles.
The precious metals are distributed to the different countries of the
world by the operation of particular laws, which have been investi-
gated, and are now well recognised. These laws allot to each
country a certain portion of the precious metals, which, while other
things remain unchanged, remains itself unchanged. The precious
metals converted into coin, constitute the Money of each country.
That coin circulates sometimes in kind: but in highly advanced
countries, it is represented to a certain extent by paper Notes,
promising to pay the Coin to bearer on demand : these Notes being
of such a nature in principle, that the increase of them supplants
Coin to an equal extent. Where these Notes are in use, the
metallic Coin together with these Notes, constitute the Money, or
Currency, of that country. Now this money is marked by certain
distinguishing characteristics : first of all, that its amount is deter-
mined by the laws which apportion the precious metals to the
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different countries of the world : secondly, that it is in every
country the common measure of the value of all other commodities :
the standard by reference to which the value of every other com-
modity is ascertained, and every contract fulfilled: and thirdly, it
becomes the common medium of exchange for the adjustment of
all transactions equally at all times between all persons, and in all
places. It has, further, the quality of discharging these functions in
endless succession. Now I conceive that neither Deposits nor Bills
of Exchange, in any way whatever, possess these qualities. In the first
place, the amount of them is not determined by the laws which
determine the amount of the precious metals in each country : in
the second place, they will in no respect serve as a common
measure of value, or a standard, by reference to which we can
measure the relative value of all other commodities : and in the
next place they do not possess that power of universal exchange-
ability which belongs to the money of the country.
Q. 2664. Why do you not include Bills of Exchange in Circula-
tion ? — I exclude Bills of Exchange for precisely the same reasons
that I have stated in my former answer for excluding Deposits.
There is another passage in the same report which appears to me to
show very clearly that the French Chamber have fully appreciated
the distinction between Bills of Exchange and Money: "Every
written obligation to pay a sum due may become a sign of the
Money : the sign has acquired some of the advantages of Circulat-
ing Money : because, like Bills of Exchange, it may be transmitted
by the easy and prompt method of indorsement. But what
obstacles there are ! It does not represent at every instant to its
holder the sum inscribed on it: it can only be paid at a distant
time : to realise it at once, it must be parted with. If one finds any-
one sufficiently trustful to accept it, it can only be transferred by
indorsement It is an eventual obligation which one contracts
one's self, and under the weight of which, until it is paid, one's
credit suffers. One is not always disposed to reveal the nature of
one's business by the signatures one puts in circulation. These
inconveniences led people to find out a sign of money still more
active and more convenient, which shares, like the Bill of Exchange,
the qualities of metallic money, because it has no other merit but to
represent it, but which can procure it at any moment : which, like
the piece of money, is transferred from hand to hand, without the
necessity of being guaranteed, without leaving traces of its passage.
The Note payable to bearer on demand, issued by powerful associa-
tions formed under the authority, and acting under the continual
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280 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
observation of Government, has appeared to present these advan-
tages. Hence Banks of circulation."
Q. 2665. Under similar circumstances, will the aggregate amount
credited to depositors in bankers' books bear some relation to the
quantity of money in the country ? — I apprehend that it is
dependent in a very great degree. I consider the money of the
country to be the foundation, and the Bills of Exchange to be the
superstructure raised upon it. I consider that Bills of Exchange are
an important form of banking operations, and the Circulation of the
country is the money in which these operations are to be adjusted ;
any contraction of the Circulation of the country will, of course, act
upon credit. Bills of Exchange, being an important form of Credit,
will feel the effect of that contraction in a very powerful degree;
they will, in fact, be contracted in a much greater degree than the
paper Circulation.
Q. 2667. Sir Robert Peel: What are the elements which con-
stitute Money, in the sense in which you use the expression
" quantity of money v ? What is the exact meaning you attach to
the words " quantity of money — quantity of metallic Currency ? " —
When I use the words " quantity of money," I mean the quantity of
metallic Coin and of paper Notes, promising to pay the Coin on
demand, which are in circulation in this country.
Q. 2668. Paper Notes payable in Coin ? — Yes.
Q. 2669. By whomsoever issued ? — Yes.
Q. 2670. By country banks as well as other banks? — Yes.
Q. 2671. Chairman; Would the superstructure, consisting of
sums credited to depositors in bankers' books and Bills of Exchange,
equally exist, although no Notes payable in Coin on demand existed
in the country ? — Yes. I apprehend that every question with
respect to Deposits, and with respect to Bills of Exchange, is totally
distinct from the question which has reference to the nature of the
process of substituting Promissory Notes in lieu of coin, and of the
laws by which that process ought to be governed. If the Promissory
Notes be properly regulated, so as to be at all times of the amount
which the coin would have been, Deposits and Bills of Exchange,
whatever changes they may undergo, would sustain these changes
equally, either with a metallic Currency, or with a paper Currency
properly regulated ; consequently, every investigation respecting
their character or amount is a distinct question from that which has
reference only to the substitution of the paper Notes for Coin.
Q. 2672. There would be no reason why, if there were no Notes
payable in Coin on demand, the amount of this superstructure
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should be less than it now is with a mixed circulation of specie and
of Notes payable on demand ? — None whatever. I apprehend that
upon the supposition that the paper Notes are kept at the same
amount as the metallic Money, the question of the superstructure
whether of Deposits or of Bills of Exchange remains precisely the
same.
Q. 2673. That answer takes for granted that, in the first case the
metallic Currency, and in the second case the metallic Currency,
plus the Notes payable on demand, are the same in quantity? —
Yes.
Q. 2674. Sir Robert Peel: You suppose the Notes payable on
demand to displace an amount of Coin precisely equal to these
Notes? — They ought to do so under a proper regulation of the
paper Money, otherwise they are not kept at the same value as
Coin.
Q. 2675. Mr. Attwood: Would you consider that the super-
structure of Bills of Exchange, founded entirely upon a metallic
Currency, might at particular times become unduly expanded ? —
The answer to that question depends entirely upon the precise
meaning of the word " unduly." I apprehend, undoubtedly, that it
is perfectly possible that Credit and the consequences which some-
times result from Credit; viz., over-banking in all its forms, and
the over-issue of Bills of Exchange, which is one important form
of over-banking, may arise with a purely metallic Currency ; and it
may also arise with a Currency consisting jointly of metallic Money
and paper Notes, promising to pay in Coin ; and I conceive further,
that if the Notes be properly regulated, that is if they be kept at the
amount which the coin otherwise would be, whatever over-banking
would have arisen with a metallic Currency, would arise, and to the
same extent, neither more nor less, with Money consisting of metallic
Coin and paper Notes jointly.
Q. 2676. May not over-banking and over-issue of Bills of
Exchange, forming a superstructure based upon Money, composed
of metal and paper Notes, derange the certainty of the Notes being
duly paid in gold? — I apprehend that if the paper Notes be properly
regulated, according to the sense which I have already attributed to
that expression, and if a proper proportion of gold be held in
reserve, the solidity of the basis cannot be disturbed; that is, if there
be a proper contraction of the paper Notes as gold goes out, the
convertibility of the paper system will be effectually preserved by the
continually increasing value of the remaining quantity of the
Currency, as the contraction proceeds.
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282 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
At this time, and for a long period preceding, the greatest part of
the Circulating Medium of Lancashire were Bills of Exchange,
which sometimes had 150 indorsements on them before they came to
maturity. Lord Overstone was asked :
Q. 3026. Does not the principal circulation of Lancashire con-
sist of Bills of Exchange ? — As I contend that Bills of Exchange do
not form part of the circulation, of course I am bound, in answer to
that question, to say No.
Q. 3027. Is there not a large quantity of Bills of Exchange in
circulation in Lancashire ? — Undoubtedly, wherever a large mass of
mercantile or trading transactions take place, there will exist a large
amount of Bills of Exchange, and that is the case, to a great extent,
in Lancashire.
Q. 3028. Do not the Bills exceed, to an immense amount, the
issue of Notes payable on demand in Lancashire? — Undoubtedly
they do, to a great extent.
Now, as Bills of Exchange are created for the very purpose
of circulating commodities, it is difficult to perceive how Lord
Overstone could refuse to admit them to be Circulating Medium.
Mr. Hume had a long fencing-match with Lord Overstone, as to
the distinction between Bank Notes and Deposits. Lord Overstone
admitted that a Debt might be discharged either by the transfer of a
Bank Note or by the transfer of a Credit in the books of a Bank ;
but he strongly contended that Bank Notes are Money, and that
Bank Credits, or Deposits, are not.
Q. 3 1 48. Do you consider any portion of the Deposits in the
Bank of England as Money ? — I do not ....
Q. 3150. Could 20,000 sovereigns have more completely dis-
charged the obligation to pay the ,£20,000 of bills than the Deposits
did ? — Where two parties have each an account with a deposit Bank,
a transfer of the Credit from one party to the credit of another party,
may certainly discharge an obligation in the same manner and to the
same extent to which sovereigns would have discharged that
obligation.
Q. 3169. Will not the debt between the two be discharged
thereby? — Yes.
Q. 3170. In the one case I have supposed that payment of
£1,000 was made by means of Notes in circulation ; payment was
made by the delivery of these Notes from one hand to another, and
they are transported from place to place; but in the case of a
payment made by means of a transfer in the books of the bank from
one account to another, I ask you, are not these payments equally
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valid, and would not the debt be discharged equally in either case ?
— In the one case the debt has been discharged without the
necessity of resorting to the use of Money, in consequence of the
economising process of deposit business in the Bank of England.
Q. 3171. Can the debt of ;£i,ooo which one person owes to
another be discharged without Money being paid, or its value ? — A
debt of ;£i,ooo cannot be discharged without, in some way or
another, transferring the value of ^1,000 ; but the transfer of value
may certainly be effected without the use of Money.
Q. 3172. Was not the deposit transfer in the Bank of England to
satisfy that debt of ;£ 1,000, of the same value as the ^1,000 Notes
which passed in the other case ? — A credit in the Bank of England,
I consider, is of the same value as the same nominal amount of
Money ; and if the Credit be transferred, the same value I consider
to be transferred as if Money of that nominal amount had been
transferred.
Q. 3177. Is there any fallacy in the statement that in the
accounts published by the Bank, their liabilities are divided into two
heads, Circulation and Deposits ? — I am not prepared to state that
there is any fallacy in it
Q. 3178. Have you not said that Deposits do not in any way
whatever possess the quality of Money ? — If I have said so, I shall
be glad to have that statement laid before me.
Q. 3179. Have you not in question 2663, enumerated certain
distinguishing characteristics of Money ? — I have.
Q. 3180. Have you not in the same question stated that
Deposits do not in any way whatever possess those characteristics? —
Yes, I have.
Q. 3 1 81. Have you not, in answer to previous questions,
admitted that for the discharge of Debts, Deposits have the
characteristics of Money ? — All that I have admitted is, I believe,
that a Deposit may, under certain supposed circumstances, be used
to discharge a certain supposed debt
Lord Overstone also said (Q. 3132), — Will any man in his common
senses pretend to say that the total amount of transactions adjusted
at the Clearing House are part of the Money, or Circulating Medium
of the country ?
This paragraph shows great looseness of idea. No one, of course,
says that a transaction is Money, but the operations of the Clearing
House consist exclusively of the transfers of Bank Credits — which are
all goods and chattels, commodities, merchandise of the value of
gold — from one bank to another, and most undoubtedly these Bank
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284 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Credits are part of the Currency or Circulating Medium of the
country, and are included in law under the term "ready money."
Lord Overstone further said (Q. $082) — When I give a definition
of " Currency," of course, it is Currency in the abstract ; it is that
which Currency ought to be \ that definition properly laid down and
properly applied, will include Paper Notes payable on demand, and
it will exclude Bills of Exchange.
Here, again, Lord Overstone is absolutely in error. The term
Currency is, as we have shown, purely a legal term, and means
anything of which the property passes by delivery and honest
acquisition. Now Bank Notes and Bills of Exchange have each this
property in common, and therefore they are each Currency.
Lastly we may quote Colonel Torrens, because he was not only
one of the most influential of the sect, but it has been alleged that
he was in reality the author of the scheme for dividing the Bank into
two departments, which Sir Robert Peel adopted in the Bank Act of
1844.
He says (The Principles and Practical operation of Sir Robert
Peel's Act of 1844 defended, p. 79) — "The terms Money and
Currency have hitherto been employed to denote those instruments
of exchange which possess intrinsic or derivative value, and by which
from law or custom, debts are discharged and transactions finally
closed. Bank Notes payable in specie on demand, have been
included under these terms as well as Coin, because by law and
custom the acceptance of the notes of a solvent bank, no less than
the acceptance of coin, liquidates debts and closes transactions;
while Bills of Exchange, Bank Credits, Cheques, and other instru-
ments, by which the use of Money is economised, have not been
included under the terms Money and Currency, because the
acceptance of such instruments does not liquidate debts and finally
close transactions."
Again, he says, in reply to some perfectly just observations of
Fullarton — " It is an obvious departure from ordinary language to
say that whether a purchase is effected by a payment in Bank Notes,
or by a Bill of Exchange, the result is the same. According to the
meaning of the terms Money and Credit, as established by the
universal usage of the market, a purchase effected by a payment in
Bank Notes is a ready money purchase [so is a purchase effected by
a cheque], while a transaction negotiated by the payment of a Bill
of Exchange, is a purchase upon Credit In the former case the
transaction is concluded, and the vendor has no further claim upon
the purchaser ; in the latter case the transaction is not concluded,
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and the vendor continues to have a claim upon the purchaser until
a further payment has been made in satisfaction of the Bill of
Exchange. A Bank Note liquidates a Debt, a Bill of Exchange
records the existence of a debt, and promises liquidation at a future
day. Mr. Fullarton not only inverts language but misstates facts,
when he says that the transactions of which Bank Notes have been
the instruments must remain incomplete until the Notes shall be
returned upon the issuing bank, and discharged in cash. A Bank
Note for ;£ioo may pass from purchasers to vendors many times a
day, finally closing on the instant each successive transaction. A
Bill of Exchange may also pass from purchasers to vendors many
times a day, but no one of the successive transactions, of which it is
the medium, can be finally closed until the last recipient has received
in Coin or Bank Notts the amount it represents."
The simple answer to this last statement is, that probably not one
Bill of Exchange in high commerce, in the City of London, in
100,000 is ever paid in Coin or Bank Notes ; they are paid in
Banking Credits.
Colonel Torrens continues — " Now it is the necessity of ultimate
repayment which constitutes the main point of distinction, which
marks the boundary between forms of Credit and Money. It is a
necessity which applies to Bills of Exchange and Cheques, but
which does not apply to Bank Notes ; and, therefore, upon Mr.
Fullarton's own showing, upon his own definition, and his own
conditions as to what constitutes Money, Bank Notes come under
the head of Money, while Bills of Exchange and bankers1 Cheques,
and such other instruments as require ultimate payments, transfers,
and settlements, do not come under the phase Money Upon
Mr. Fullarton's own showing, Money consists of those instruments
only by which debts are discharged, balances adjusted, and transac-
tions finally closed ; and therefore Mr. Fullarton, unless he should
choose to continue to contradict himself, must admit that Bank
Notes are, and Bills of Exchange, Bank Credits, and Cheques, are
not, Money."
We have given these long extracts in order that the reader
may fully understand the doctrines and principles of the influential
sect, whose views were embodied in the Bank Charter Act of 1844.
He will at once see that they are based on an arbitrary Definition of
the term Currency, which is in diametrical contradiction to the
unanimous doctrines of Statesmen and Economists of former times,
and the decisions of the Courts of Law; and we have now to
examine the logical consequences to which these doctrines lead.
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286 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Mr. Norman said that Money or Currency should possess fixed
value, and be a perfect numerator.
Now, the value of Money is the various commodities, services,
and securities, it can purchase, and as the quantity of all these things
which Money can purchase constantly varies from hour to hour,
from day to day, and from week to week, how can Money have
"fixed value"? We have shown that neither Money nor anything
else can have " fixed value " unless everything has " fixed value."
He said that he meant by a numerator that which measured the
value of other things with the greatest facility; but does not a
Cheque for ^50, or a Bill of Exchange for ^50, measure the value
of things with as great facility as a ^50 Bank Note or fifty
sovereigns ?
It is not a little amusing to find the celebrated phrase of the
Roman Catholic Church. — Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab' omni-
bus— starting up and meeting us in a discussion on Currency.
In Lord Overstone's opinion Money and Currency are identical,
and include the coined metallic Money, and the paper Notes
promising to pay the bearer Coin on demand ; and he says that the
characteristic of their being Money is, that they are received equally
at " ail times, between all persons, and in all places."
For the sake of shortness, let us designate this phrase by 3A —
from the three Alls in it
Lord Overstone excludes Bills of Exchange from the designation
of Currency because " they do not possess that power of universal
exchangeability which belongs to the Money of the country."
This definition is fatal to Lord Overstone's own view. In fact,
if it be true, there is no such thing as Money, or Currency, at alL
In the first place, it at once excludes the whole of Bank Notes.
The Notes of a Bank in the remote district of Cumberland would
not be current in Cornwall ; therefore, they are not 3 A ; therefore,
they are not Currency. Again, the Notes of a small country bank
in Cornwall would not be received in Cumberland ; therefore, they
are not 3 A ; therefore they are not Currency.
Similarly, there are no country bank notes which would be
generally received throughout England ; therefore, no country bank
notes are 3 A ; therefore, no country bank notes are Currency.
Till within the last seventy years or so, Bank of England notes
had scarcely any Currency beyond London and Lancashire; in
country districts a preference was universally given to local notes;
therefore, Bank of England were not 3 A ; they had not the power of
" universal exchangeability "; therefore, they were not Currency. Bank
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of England Notes, even at the present day, would probably not pass
in the greater part of country districts in Scotland. If, therefore, the
test of 3A and " universal exchangeability " be applied, the claims of
all Bank Notes to be considered as Currency are annihilated at
once.
But the universality of Lord Overstone's assertion, is fatal to his
argument in other ways. On the Continent, at least in France and
elsewhere, Silver is legal tender to any amount. In England, silver,
like copper, is merely coined into small tokens, called shillings, &c,
which are made to pass current above their natural value, and are
only legal tender to a very trifling amount ; hence silver in England
cannot be used in the adjustment of all transactions ; therefore, it is
not 3A; therefore, it is not Currency. There are other countries,
such as India, where gold is not a legal Tender ; therefore it fails to
satisfy Lord Overstone's test ; therefore, it is not Currency. If then,
the test proposed by Lord Overstone is to be accepted, it is easy to
see that there is no substance or material whatever which does not
fail under it, and, therefore, there is no such a thing as Currency.
The fact is that the only difference between a Bank Note and
a Bill of Exchange is, that the Note is a Right to payment on
demand, and a Bill is a Right to payment at a future time. For this
reason a Bank Note possesses a greater degree of circulating power
than a Bill
In the Midland Counties it used to be quite common for the
banks to issue the bills they had discounted with their own indorse-
ment upon them, which made them bank notes ; until the practice
was declared to be illegal, and such instruments were declared to be
bank notes.
Moreover, there is not the same inducement to put a Bill into
circulation as a Note, because the former increases in value every
day until it is paid, while the latter does not But it is to the last
degree unphilosophical to maintain that these two instruments are of
different natures becase they are adapted to circulate in different
degrees.
Colonel Torrens has adduced several legal and practical reasons
in support of the views of his sect The poet says :
"Ah me ! what perils do environ
The man who meddles with cold iron."
So are the perils which environ the lay dreamer who meddles with
mercantile law and practical business. All Colonel Torrens's
reasons are absolutely fallacious both in law and practice.
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288 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
He includes Bank Notes in, and excludes Cheques from, the title
of Currency, because, he says, by law and custom the acceptance of
the Notes of a solvent bank liquidates debts and closes transactions ;
whereas the acceptance of Cheques does not liquidate debts and
close transactions.
In this Colonel Torrens is absolutely wrong, as any tyro in
Mercantile Law would tell him.
Bank Notes, Cheques, and Bank Credits, stand exactly on the
same footing as to liquidating debts and closing transactions.
No debtor can compel his Creditor to accept an ordinary Bank
Note, Cheque, or Bank Credit, in payment of a Debt ; but if he
chooses to do so voluntarily they all equally liquidate Debts, and
close transactions. .
Tender of a Cheque is equally good tender of payment as the
tender of an ordinary Bank Note.
And when the bank has transferred the Credit from the debtor's
account to that of the creditor's, it liquidates the debt, and closes
the transaction, in all respects as if it had been a payment in
Money.
If a creditor accepts payment by Cheque, and keeps the Cheque
an undue time, without presenting it for payment, and the bank fails,
having sufficient Credit on the debtor's account to meet his Cheque,
the debt between the creditor and debtor is liquidated and the
transaction closed. The creditor has made the Cheque money.
And if the Credit has been once transferred from the account of
the debtor to that of the creditor the debt as between the parties is
liquidated, and the transaction closed, even though the bank should
fail immediately afterwards.
But Colonel Torrens's statement of facts is equally erroneous as his
statements of law.
He alleges that a transaction by a Bill of Exchange is not finally
closed until the Bill has been paid in Coin or in Bank Notes,
It is the idea of Colonel Torrens, Mill, and other dreamers, who
have not the slightest knowledge of the mechanism of modern bank-
ing, that all Bills of Exchange and Cheques are ultimately paid in
Coin or Bank Notes ; at which all bankers and persons conversant
with the mechanism of modern banking would make themselves very
merry.
In modern banking, in the City of London, probably not one
Bill of Exchange in 100,000, and only a very small proportion
of Cheques, are paid in Coin or Bank Notes.
An investigation, instituted by some bankers after the late Gold
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and Silver Commission, showed that only '0025 per cent, of banking
transactions are settled in Coin.
No doubt 250 years ago, before the institution of banking, all bills
were paid in money, but as soon as banking attained any magnitude,
persons who had bill transactions must have been customers of the
same bank ; and in all such cases bills were paid and discharged by
means of Bank Credits and not by money.
Before the institution of the Clearing House in 1776, all banking
chaiges were settled by Coin and Bank Notes, and banking charges
were settled by the mutual exchange of the securities ; and it was
only the inequality of these exchanges which were paid in Bank
Notes. This, of course, enormously diminished the number of
Cheques and Bills which were paid in Bank Notes or Money, but in
recent years almost all the banks, including the Bank of England,
have entered the Clearing House ; and even most of the banks
which are not in the Clearing House themselves, pass their Cheques
and Bills through banks which are. And by a further improved
system of clearing, no Money or Bank Notes are now used at alL
At the present time about ^7,000,000,000 of Cheques and Bills are
paid and discharged in the London Clearing House alone, without
the use of a single coin or Bank Note; and besides that there
is a Country Clearing House, and a Clearing House in" all the great
towns. What then becomes of the foolish fancy of Torrens, Mill,
and so many others, that all Cheques and Bills are ultimately paid in
Coin and Bank Notes ? They are all paid and discharged by Bank
Credits.
Thus, when Torrens and his sect maintain that the criterion of
Currency is that it liquidates debts and closes transactions, and they
maintain that Bank Credits, or Deposits, are not Currency, they are
hoist with their own petard, because, as a matter of fact, in modern
banking, all banking transactions are liquidated and closed by Bank
Credits, or Deposits.
Bank Credits, or Deposits, are now for all practical purposes the
Current Coin of the Realm.
Consequences of Lord Overstone's Definition of Currency.
We have now to point out the necessary consequences to which
Lord Overstone's Definition of Currency leads, which may somewhat
surprise its advocates.
Lord Overstone's dogma asserts that the fundamental essence of
Money, or Currency, is that it "closes a debt."
u
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290 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
To this we reply, as was the fashion in the glorious old days of
special pleading — (1) There is no debt to close; (2) It does not
close the debt
1. When money is exchanged for goods, no debt arises ; and if it
be said that the money closes the debt which would have arisen on
the sale of the goods, we reply that the goods equally close the
debt which would have arisen on the sale of the money. It is
simply an exchange; the money and the goods equally close the
debt which would have arisen on either side. Therefore, if the
essence of Currency be to "close debt," the goods are Currency for
precisely the same reason that Money is.
2. It is quite common in the City to close a debt with Stock,
therefore, by this dogma, Stock is Currency.
3. In numerous cases debts are closed by a payment in goods.
Traders often exchange goods; that is barter. Now, by the ex-
change of goods, the debt is closed as effectually on each side as by
money. Hence, by this dogma, the goods exchanged on each side
are Currency.
4. Two merchants may issue acceptances for the same amount,
payable on the same day. These merchants may chance to get
possession of each other's acceptances. If so, each merchant may
tender to the other his acceptance in payment of the debt due by
himself. By this exchange the debts are closed on each side. . Con-
sequently each acceptance, according to Lord Overstone's dogma, is
Currency, as they are Money in law.
In the great Continental fairs, merchants exchanged their accept-
ances by millions ; the debts were closed, and therefore they were
Money or Currency.
5. A merchant issues his acceptance, which gets into the hands of
a banker. The banker issues notes, which get into the hands of the
merchant. When the banker presents his acceptance to the mer-
chant for payment, the merchant pays the banker in his own notes.
By this exchange the debt on each side is closed ; hence, by Lord
Overstone's own dogma, the acceptance is equal by Money and
Currency as the Notes.
6. Or the merchant issues an acceptance, which gets into the hands
of his own banker. When the acceptance falls due, the banker simply
writes off the amount from the merchant's account. Both debts are
then closed, and, according to Lord Overstone's own dogma, the
acceptance and the deposit are equally Money and Currency.
7. If two persons, A and B, are customers of the same bank, and
A owes B a debt, A gives B a cheque on his account, B pays the
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cheque into his account, the banker transfers the Credit from A's
account to B's, and the debt is closed by Novation. Hence, by
Lord Overstone's own dogma, the Deposit is Money and Currency.
Thus Lord Overstone's dogma is transfixed by shafts drawn from
his own quiver.
The same doctrine may be extended to other cases : —
8. A person buys a ticket from a railway company. The company
is then in debt to him for a journey. But when the company have
carried him to his journey's end, the debt is closed. Therefore, by
Lord Overstone's dogma, the railway journey is Money or Currency.
9. A person buys an opera ticket. The manager is then indebted
to him for a performance. When the person has seen the per-
formance, the debt is closed. Hence, by Lord Overstone's dogma,
the performance of the opera is Money and Currency.
10. A person buys a postage stamp. The Post-office is then in
debt to him for the carriage of a letter. When the letter is carried
to its destination, the debt is closed. Hence, by Lord Overstone's
dogma, the carriage of a letter is Money and Currency.
And the same principle may be applied to many other cases,
which will readily supply themselves to the intelligence of the
reader. And, in short, it may be said that in all exchanges what-
ever, according to Lord Overstone's dogma, each object exchanged,
whatever its form may be, is Money and Currency.
In the next place, by the unanimous consent of Economists, a
payment in Money does not close the Debt.
Economists affirm that the transaction is not closed until a
satisfaction has been obtained for the one originally given. They
therefore held that in an exchange for money, the exchange is not
consummated or completed.
A baker, say, wants shoes. He sells his bread for money. But
can he wear the money as shoes ? Certainly not ; he must exchange
away his money for shoes. Consequently, the Economists held
that the exchange was not consummated or completed, and the debt
closed, until the baker has got the shoes in exchange for the bread.
For this reason, all Economists, from Aristotle to the present
time, have perceived and declared that money itself is only a species
of Credit, or general Bill of Exchange, as we have shown by a
whole catena of writers. Hence Money and Bills of Exchange
are fundamentally analogous. They are merely the evidence of
a debt due to their possessor. And the payment of a Bill of
Exchange in money is only the exchange of a particular and pre-
carious Right for a general and permanent one.
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292 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
But as Economists, we have nothing to do with satisfaction and
enjoyment, but only with exchanges. The exchange of goods for a
bill is one exchange, the exchange of a bill or note for money is
another exchange, and the exchange of money for goods is another
exchange.
Hence a person who has received Money for goods and services
has no more got a satisfaction, in the Economic sense, than the
person who has received a Bill of Exchange.
The result of Lord Overstone's dogma is either that there is no
such thing as Currency at all, or that everything is Currency.
Lord Overstone' s Definition of Currency violates the
Law of Continuity.
But the Law of Continuity shows the fallacy of Lord Overstone's
dogma that Bank-notes payable on demand are Currency. But
would not Notes payable one hour, or two hours, or three hours
after demand be Currency? Would not Notes payable one day
after demand be Currency? or two days, or three days? Lord
Overstone denied that Bank post bills, which are payable seven days
after sight, are Currency. According to this dogma, if a person
receives a Bank-note payable on demand, it is Currency; but if,
for his own convenience, he asks for one payable seven days after
sight, that is not Currency. But seven days after sight the Bill
becomes payable on demand ; and then, by his own dogma, it is
Currency. What was it during the preceding days ?
It used formerly to be the custom for country bankers to issue
Notes payable three, ten, or twenty days after demand. These
Notes circulated just like other Notes. Lord Overstone denied that
such Notes are Currency. But by his own dogma they are Currency
on the day they become payable. What are they before that ?
Cheques are payable on demand, and the acceptance of a Cheque
is payment ; it closes a debt equally as Notes. How are Cheques
not Currency as much as Notes ?
A Bill of Exchange is payable on demand the day it becomes
due, and, by Lord Overstone's dogma, it becomes Currency on that
day. What was it during the preceding term ?
It is evident that there can be but one answer. All these instru-
ments are Currency, though differing in degree, and the distinction
between them is untenable.
Nay, according to this dogma, Bank-notes themselves are only
Currency for about seven hours out of the twenty-four, because they
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are only payable on demand and during banking hours, say from
9 to 4. As soon as the clock strikes 4 the Notes are not payable
till next day, consequently they are not Currency, and do not affect
foreign exchanges. Therefore, at five minutes before 4 the Notes
are Currency, and affect the foreign exchanges ; at five minutes after
4 they are not Currency, and do not affect the foreign exchanges.
In the same way, at five minutes before 9 the Notes are not Cur-
rency, and do not affect the foreign exchanges; at five minutes after
9 they are Currency, and do affect the foreign exchanges. We leave
it to our readers to say whether such dogmas are sound philosophy.
We are happy to say that the distinguished French Economist,
Michel Chevalier, entirely agreed with us on this point. After
showing the untenable nature of the distinction set up between
Bank-notes and Bills of Exchange, he says {La Monnaie, sect. 3,
ch. 5): "The English language has a generic word which com-
prehends Money, Bank-notes, Paper Money, or assignats not
convertible into specie, and every other kind of security which can
be put into circulation, and is accepted more or less generally
among men, and that is the word Currency. Our language has no
precise equivalent ; nevertheless, the word Numeraire may be taken
in the same sense, and I shall employ it for the future in this work."
And he gave his formal adhesion to the fundamental nature of a
Currency as set forth above. {Report on my Works to the Academy
of Moral and Political Sciences to the Institute of France. Journal
des Economistcsy August, 1862.)
THE CLEARING HOUSE.
The Clearing House is an institution by which all the Banks
which join in it are formed, as it were, into one huge Banking
Institution, for the purpose of transferring Credits from one Bank to
another without the use of coin, just in the same way as Credits are
transferred from one account to another in the same Bank without
the use of coin.
Every banker has every morning claims, on behalf of his
customers, against his neighbours, and they have claims, on behalf
of their customers, against him. These claims are called bankers'
charges.
Formerly it was the custom for every banker to send out his clerks,
the first thing every morning, to collect these charges, which had to
be paid in money or bank notes. Having collected these charges,
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294 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. IL
he credited his customers with the sums respectively due to them.
The money and the bank notes became the actual property of the
banker, but he was obliged to create an equal amount of Credit on
behalf of his customers, so that the final result was that there was
exactly the same amount of Credit in existence.
But each of his neighbours had also claims, on behalf of their
customers, against him. Consequently, every banker was obliged to
keep a large stock of money and bank notes to meet these claims.
By this system a very large amount of money and bank notes was
obliged to be retained among bankers, for the sole purpose of
meeting these bankers' charges. It was simply transferred and
re-transferred from bank to bank. It never got into general
circulation at all, so as to affect business or prices, and it could be
made no other use of.
It was stated before the House of Commons many years ago, that
one Bank alone, the London and Westminster, was obliged to keep
,£150,000 in notes for this sole purpose. And if that Bank alone,
then in its infancy, was obliged to retain such a sum in notes idle for
this sole purpose, what would be the sum necessary to be retained
at the present day, by all the Banks, if it were not for the Clearing
House ?
To remedy this inconvenience an ingenious plan was devised, it is
said, by the Banks at Naples, in the 16th century. The Banks
instituted a central Chamber, to which each sent a clerk with their
claims against their neighbours. These clerks exchanged their
respective claims against each other, and paid only the differences in
cash.
By this means the different Credits were readjusted among the
different customers' accounts, as easily as before; and a large
amount of money and bank notes was set free for the purposes of
circulation and commerce, and was for all practical purposes equiva-
lent to so much increase of Capital to the Banks and the country.
This system was first adopted in this country by the Banks in
Edinburgh. And we have now to show that no permanent extinc-
tion of Credit takes place as in Compensation, and that the final
result is only a Transfer of credit ; that is, a Novation.
Suppose that a customer of the Commercial Bank has £100 in
notes of the Royal Bank paid to him. He is thus Creditor to the
Royal Bank. He pays these notes into his account with the
Commercial Bank, and thus constitutes the Commercial Bank his
agents, to collect the proceeds of the notes and place them to
his account.
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Suppose that in a similar way a customer of the Royal Bank has
,£100 in notes of the Commercial Bank paid to him. He is then
Creditor to the Commercial Bank. He pays these notes into his,
account with the Royal Bank, and thus constitutes them his agents,
to collect the proceeds from the Commercial Bank and place them
to his account.
Each Bank is then Debtor to the customer of the other.
The full way would be for each Bank to send a clerk to the other
to collect the notes in money. Each Bank then, having then
received payment from the other of its notes, would give Credit to
its customer for :he amount, and put the money, which would then
become its own, into its own till ; just as if the customer had paid in
the money himself.
Thus it is evident that there is in each case a Novation and not a
Compensation.
This method of settling the claims of the customers of the
two Banks, would require ^200 in money.
The same result may be obtained in a much simpler way.
Let the clerks of the two Banks meet
The clerk of the Commercial Bank, says to the clerk of the Royal
Bank : " In consideration of your giving up to me the notes held by
your customer, by which I am debtor to him, and so releasing me
from my debt to him, I agree to credit my customer with their
amount, and to become debtor to him."
This is evidently a Novation.
The clerk of the Royal Bank, says to the clerk of the Commercial
Bank : " In consideration of your giving up to me the notes held by
your customer, by which I am debtor to him, and so releasing me
from my debt to him, I agree to give Credit to my customer for their
amount, and so become debtor to him."
This evidently is also a Novation.
The clerks of the two Banks then exchange notes; and each
having received ;£ioo in its own notes — that is being released from
its debt to the customer of the other, which is equivalent to a
payment in money — enters the amount to the credit of its own
customer.
By this means, each Bank instead of being debtor to the customer
of the other, becomes debtor to its own customer; and the use
of ^200 in money is saved.
The release of each Bank from its debt to the customer of the
other, is the consideration for the creation of the debt to its own,
customer.
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296 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
No doubt the ;£ioo of notes of each Bank are withdrawn from
circulation and replaced in its own till. But an equal amount
of Credit is created, and placed to the credit of each customer ; so
that the final result is that the quantity of Credit remains exactly the
same.
Thus the debt of each Bank to the customer of the other
is extinguished by the new Debt created in favour of its
customer.
It is usually said in the Continental Treatises, that the Clearing
House is a Maison de Compensation or Liquidation ; but this is now
shown to be an error; it is not a Maison de Compensation but of
Novations.
A Compensation consists of two Acceptilations ; but an operation
at the Clearing House consists of two Novations. And the reason
why the operations of the merchants at the Continental fairs were
Compensations, in which both Credits were extinguished; and the
operations of the Clearing House are two Novations^ in which new
Credits are created, which pay and extinguish the prior ones,
but create an equal amount of new credits, so that the final result is
that the total amount of Credit remains exactly the same as it was at
first, is this —
In the case of the Continental merchants, they were principals;
the tills they held were their own property ; and they were mutually
indebted to each other; when, therefore, they exchanged their
mutual debts, they were cancelled and estinguished ; and no new
Debts were created to replace them.
But in the case of the Clearing House, the Banks are not
principals ; they are only Agents for their customers ; consequently,
when they receive their own notes, and so are released from their
Debt to the customer of the other, they are bound to create an equal
amount of Credit in favour of their own customer, which cancels and
extinguishes the preceding Debts, but leaves exactly the same
amount of Credit, a Debt, existing.
Hence the Clearing House is a Maison de Novation^ and not of
Compensation or Liquidation.
The system of clearing was adopted by the City bankers in 1776 ;
but the Bank of England was not admitted to it Nor were the
Joint Stock Banks admitted till 1854; when the charges of the
Joint Stock Banks pressed so heavily on the private bankers that
they were obliged to admit them. The Bank of England was not
admitted till 1864.
The charges of the London bankers consist of Cheques and
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Bills of Exchange, and not Notes; but that makes no difference
in the principle of the case. A Cheque or a Bill on a Bank, by
a customer who has funds to meet it as his account, is in all
respects equivalent to a Note of the banker himself. Each bank
collects the Cheques and Bills due to its customers, and re-arranges
the Credits due to its various customers exactly in the same way
as if they were Notes.
Before 1864, the differences payable by the Banks were settled
by Bank Notes ; and it is said that about ,£250,000 were required
for that purpose.
But when the Bank of England was admitted in 1864 to the
Clearing House, the system of Clearing was still further improved ;
so that the use of Coin and Notes is now entirely dispensed
with.
Every Clearing Bank keeps an account with the Bank of England ;
and the Inspector of the Clearing House keeps one, too. Printed
lists of the Clearing Banks are made out for each Bank, with its
own name at the top; and the others are placed in alphabetical
order below it On the left-hand side is the Debtor's column,
and on the right-hand side is the Creditor's column. The clerk
of the Clearing House then makes up the accounts between each
bank, and enters only the difference in the balance sheet, according
as it is Creditor or Debtor. A balance is then struck between
the Creditor and the Debtor side, and the paper delivered to the
clerk, who takes it back to his own bank. The balance is then
paid to, or received from, the Clearing House. If the Bank
is Debtor, it gives a white ticket to, and if it is Creditor, it
receives a green ticket from the Clearing House. By this most
ingenious system, not a single Coin or Bank Note is required;
and the sums transferred by this means between the different
banks amount to about ^7,000,000,000 a year at the present
time.
But besides the London Clearing House, there is the Country
Clearing House ; and every large city in the country has a Clearing
House of its own. What the aggregate amount of Credits trans-
ferred by all the Clearing Houses in the country is, we have no
means of knowing.
Neither have we any means of knowing the amount of Coins
and Bank Notes saved to the community by the institution of
Clearing Houses. But it is something enormous.
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298 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
COIN.
Almost all nations, even the rudest, have felt the necessity of
employing some substance to perform the functions of Money. We
have noted elsewhere (Money) most of the substances which have
been used for this purpose by different nations. A metal, however,
of some sort has been found to possess the greatest advantages;
and of metals, gold, silver, and copper have been chiefly preferred.
Gold and Silver, however, in a perfectly pure state are too soft
to be used for this purpose, and it is necessary to mix some other
metal with them to harden them. By a Chemical Law, when two
metals are mixed together, the compound is harder than either
of them in a pure state.
When Gold and Silver are in the mass they are called Bullion.
But as the laws of all nations in which Bullion is coined into Money
define the quantity of alloy to be mixed with the pure metal, we
shall use the word Bullion to mean Gold and Silver in the mass,
mixed with such a proportion of alloy as- is ordered by law, so
as to be fit to be coined.
The purity of Gold is measured by 24th parts, termed Carats;
and ever since the 6th Edward VI. (1553), the bullion used for
the gold coinage has been 22 carats fine and 2 carats of alloy.
This is called Crown Gold.
William the Conqueror fixed the standard of Silver Bullion at
11 ozs. 2 dwts. of pure silver, and 18 dwts. of alloy; and except
during a short period of confusion from the 34th Henry VIII. to
Elizabeth, it has never been departed from. It is called the " old
right standard of England," or " Sterling " ; and as the Sovereigns
of England, though they reduced the weight of the coin, never,
with the slight exception just mentioned, debased its purity, Sterling
came to signify honest and true — to be depended on.
In France, and those countries which have adopted a decimal
coinage, bullion is made of 9 parts of pure metal and 1 part alloy;
but it is found in practice that the English proportion gives greater
durability to the metal, and is therefore better adapted for a
coinage.
Some nations have used simple bullion as Money. But the
merchants of these nations were obliged to carry about with them
scales and weights, to weigh out the bullion on each occasion.
This was usual among the Jews. In some countries it was necessary
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both to weigh and assay the bullion at each operation, which
was, of course, a great impediment to commerce.
Other nations adopted a more convenient plan. They divided
the bullion into pieces of a certain definite weight, and affixed a
public stamp on them, to certify to the public that they were of
a certain weight and fineness ; and they gave them certain names,
by which they were commonly known.
These pieces of bullion, issued by public authority, with a stamp
on them to certify their weight and fineness, and called by a definite
name, and intended to be used in commerce without further exam-
ination, are called Coins.
When nations discontinued the practice of direct barter, and
adopted the precious metals as measures of value, the expedient
of cutting the metals into pieces of definite weight and fineness
seems so obvious, that we should naturally expect that coining
was invented by those nations which first adopted the precious
metals as money.
Strange, as it may appear, however, it is certain that this was not
the case. Silver and gold were used as measures of value for ages
before coining was thought of; and there is every reason to believe
that coining was invented, at least in Europe and Western Asia, by
a people who up to that time had never used Gold and Silver as
Money ; and coining was practised by them for centuries before it
was adopted by nations who had used the precious metals as
Money for ages.
There seems no reason to doubt that coining was invented by
the Hindoos long before the age of authentic history. Sir Alexander
Cunningham, who is the highest authority on Indian numismatics,
is of opinion that the Hindoos coined silver in square coins at least
as early as 1000 B.C. \ though how much earlier it is not possible to
say. However, this plan did not find its way into Western nations.
It has been disputed whether Money, or Coin, was in use in the
times of the Homeric poems. Some critics have contended that in
certain passages where Homer used the word $ov% he meant coins
of that name, as there certainly were in after ages. But after
having gone over the Homeric poems for this express purpose, we
are satisfied that there is not the faintest allusion to anything like
Money in them.
Not only do we find no allusion to Money in Homer, but the
words significative of wealth, give no preference to the precious
metals above other things. On the contrary, they are comparatively
rarely mentioned. The Homeric words expressive of wealth most
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3<X> Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
frequently refer to cattle, or horses, or agriculture. Thus we have
iroXvppqv, iro\vf3ovrr]s9 iroAuunros, ^tAoicrcavos, woXwrdfuaVj a<f>veu>s9
TroXvKTrjfxhiv, iroXvkrj'ios. In Iliad vii. 1 80, and xi. 46, are almost
the only instances in which gold is especially alluded to as wealth —
TroXvxpvo-oio Mvicrjvris. When the Greek and Trojan leaders send
spies to discover the plans of the enemy, neither of them promises
Money as a reward. Nestor (Iliad x. 215) promises the successful
spy a black ewe with its young — a matchless gift; and Hector
(x- 3° 5) promises on his part a chariot and a pair of horses.
The Homeric poems probably originated when the Achaeans
were the rulers of Hellas, and before the Dorian conquest, though
very probably they may have been edited after that period. In
those times, then, we have seen, that there was no Money of any
sort in Hellas, nor even were gold and silver used as measures of
value. But some time after this, though how long we cannot say,
a Money of a curious nature came into use throughout Hellas.
They used large iron or copper nails, or skewers, called o/?€A.«r#coi,
of such a size that six of them made a handful ; and when silver
was substituted, the Spa-XP1! — the standard silver coin of the
Hellenes — derived its name from the fact that it represented the
value in silver of a handful of these nails, or skewers. They are
mentioned by Plutarch in his life of Lysander, § 17. He says that
Lysander sent a quantity of gold and silver money to Sparta by
Gylippus, who stole part of it ; and this being discovered, made the
chief Spartans demand that all the gold and silver should be sent
away as a foreign nuisance ; and that they should use nothing but
their own national coin, which was of iron, and tempered with
vinegar, so as to render it useless for any other purpose. And he
says — " Probably all the money in former times was of this kind ;
for they used iron skewers as money, and some used copper ones.
Whence it comes that even now a quantity of small coin is called
ofioXos, and a drachma is six oboli, because the hand can grasp that
number." We shall see below that Pheidon, who introduced a silver
coinage into Hellas, collected a number of these nails or skewers,
and laid them up in the Temple of Here, at Argos, as a curiosity.
Although Julius Pollux says that the invention of coining was by
different writers attributed to four different persons, or peoples, the
claimants for this honour are practically but two — Pheidon of Argos
and the Lydians. The majority of ancient writers attribute it to
Pheidon, King of Argos. The historian Ephorus is quoted in two
places by Strabo. In viii. 6, he says —
""E^x>/>os, lv kiylvQ apyvpov irpwrov KOirijvai (fyrjciv virb ^ci&wos.
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'E/xiro/xtov yap y€v«r0cu irapa rtjv Xvirp&rqra ti}s \<6pas twv avOpwrw
daWarrovpyovvTtov €/A1^o/>lK<us.,,
" Ephorus says that silver was first coined in ALgina by Pheidon.
For the island became a commercial port, as the inhabitants were
obliged to betake themselves to maritime commerce in consequence of the
sterility of the land.19
Also in viii. 3 —
"Kcu fierpa kgevpe rot $eiScuvtfca jcaAov/xeya, koli arradfiovs, *al
vofiurfia Kayapayixkvov to tc akXo koi rb apyvpov"
"And he invented the measures called the Pheidonian ones, and
weights, and coined Money of silver and other kinds.n
The Etymologicum Magnum under the title o/JcAmtkos, says —
" Udvriov 8c irpwros $€t'6W "Apytios vofiurfxa €ko\//€v kv Alyivy, teal
Sovs to vo/iioyza kcu dvakdf3a>v tovs o/SeXiCTKOvSy dvWrjM tq' kv *A/ry«
"And Pheidon of Argos was the first who ever coined Money ;
which he did at ASgina ; and he both put money into circulation, and
withdrew the skewers, and laid them up in the temple of Here, in
Argos.1'
In accordance with this, JEM&n says —
"Kcu irpwrot vofiurfia €KO\f/avro koi i£ a.vrwv kicXrjdT) vofiurfia
Aiyivaiov."
" And they were the first who coined Money, which, too, from them
is called /Egincean Money"
So the Parian marble says —
"'A<f>f 0$ $ . . . &W 6. 'Apyelos €&J/x€w ...€... vcotccvcw*, /cat
vopMTfia dpyvpovv kv AlyivQ kiroirivtv"
All these authorities, therefore, agree that Pheidon of Argos, was
the first who coined Money, which he did at ^Egina; because it
was a great commercial port; and therefore it was most wanted
there for the convenience of commerce.
The period at which Pheidon lived has been the subject of much
dispute. For while some carry it back so far as 865 b.c, others
bring it down to 783-744. The question is fully discussed in the
first appendix to the first volume of Clinton's Fasti Hellenici : and,
in his opinion, the latter is the true date. We may, therefore, place
the invention of coining in Europe by Pheidon in the first half of
the eighth century b.c. At that time he was, by far, the most
powerful sovereign in Hellas. Argos was the metropolis, not only
of the Peloponnesian Dorians, but of the Asiatic Dorian colonies.
The Dorians carried on a very large commerce with the Phenicians,
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302 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
and Pheidon adopted bis system of weights from them. From time
immemorial there had been two standard weights used in Assyria —
the Babylonian and the Euboic talent The Dorians traded with
the Phenicians, and adopted the Babylonian talent The Ionians
adopted the Euboic talent. As iEgina was the great commercial
depot, this talent was afterwards called the iEginean talent The
Assyrians, at this time, had no coinage. Pheidon, introducing the
system of Babylonian weights into Hellas, seems to have invented
a system of measures which were called after him, and also a silver
coinage, to supersede the clumsy iron and copper skewers and nails
then used as Money.
The account of the invention of coining, just given, seems
natural and probable. There is, however, a passage in Herodotus,
which seems to be at variance with it He says I., 94, speaking of
the Lydians : — " Hp&roi 8k aydpwnav r<ov rjficis l&pxv vopurpa \pvcrov
Kal apyvpov Koipdpcvoi ixprjo-avro"
" And they were the first men we know of who coined and used
gold and silver money.'*
This has always been supposed to mean that the Lydians were
the first who invented coining, and that they used a double standard,
as it is called, of gold coins and silver coins. If this be the case,
the authority of Herodotus is against the claim of Pheidon, and,
though it is somewhat singular that Julius Pollux does not mention
this passage, he says that Xenophanes, of Colophon, assigns the
invention to the Lydians.
However, the commentators have not rightly seized the meaning
of Herodotus. They make him say that the Lydians coined gold
coins and silver coins separately. But when Kal is used to connect
two qualities, it means that the object spoken of partakes of both
qualities at once. Thus, as the month began in the middle of
the day, the last day of a month was called Iny kcu vka — the new
and old day — because it belonged partly to one month, and partly
to another. So there are many other examples. This passage,
therefore, does not mean that the Lydians were the first to coin
gold money and silver money separately — if Herodotus had
meant that he would have said vofuo-pa xpwrov tc /cat apyvpov —
but it means that the Lydians were the first to coin money of a
mixture of gold and silver.
This rendering of the passage, which is the genuine Greek idiom,
exactly tallies with the fact The Lydians liad a coinage of a
mixture of gold and silver, which they called rjXtKrpov, or electrum.
They were usually made of three parts of gold and one of silver.
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And these coins were adopted throughout the western states of
Asia Minor. There are several of these coins in the British
Museum.
It may almost seem superfluous to remark that this stamp, or
certificate, in no way affects the Value of the Coin, or the quantity
of things it will exchange for a purchase. Its only object is to
save the trouble of weighing and assaying the bullion in commerce.
Nor can the Name of a Coin in any way affect its Value.
Values, it is true, are estimated in the number of these pieces
of bullion, or Coins: but it is necessarily implied in the bargain
that the Coins shall contain a certain quantity of bullion of a
definite fineness.
Nevertheless, although this seems so perfectly clear, it is a con*
fusion on this point which is at the root of most of the fallacies
and extravagancies on the Currency question, which have so long
vexed the public ear. They almost all arise from confounding
the Name— or Denomination — of a Coin with its Value : its
Name with its Purchasing Power: and, from supposing that, if
the Legislature choose to call a Shilling a Pound, that, therefore,
a Shilling would have the value of a Pound. Anyone who will
brand on his mind the simple principle that, though the stamp
gives the Coin currency, it is the weight of bullion alone which
gives it Value, will be able to steer his course safely through all
the shoals and quicksands of monetary controversies.
It is also evident that if this process of stamping bullion, and so
turning it into Coin, is done free of all expense, at the will of
anyone who chooses to present bullion at the Mint and demand
to have it stamped : and also without any delay : the Value of
the metal, as Bullion, must be exactly the same as the Value of
the metal as Coin.
If, however, a charge is made for the workmanship; or if any
tax is levied on changing the metal from one form into the other;
or if delay takes place in doing so; there will be a difference
between the Value of the metal as Bullion and as Coin, equal to
the charge for workmanship, the tax imposed, and the amount of
interest accruing during the period of delay.
These, however, are all fixed, or constant, quantities, which can
be ascertained, and they form the limits of the variation of the
value of the metal in Bullion and in Coin.
In the assumptions, then, that there is no charge for work-
manship, no tax, and no delay in coining — and only upon these
assumptions— we have this fundamental Law of the Coinage.
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304 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Any Quantity of Metal in the form of Bullion must be exactly
of the same Value as the same Quantity of Metal in the form
of Coin.
In the case of the Coinage of England, no charge of any sort is
made for coining Gold Bullion; but, as considerable delay may
take place before anyone who brings Bullion to the Mint can have
it coined, the 7 and 8 Vict. (1844) c. 32, s. 4, enacts that everyone
may take standard Gold Bullion to the Bank of England, and that
the Bank shall be obliged to purchase his Bullion, in Notes, to the
amount of £$ 17s. 9& for every ounce of such Bullion. And, as
the holder of such Notes, may immediately demand legal Coin for
them at the rate of £3 17s. iojd. per ounce, it may be said that
every person can immediately convert his Bullion into Coin, at the
charge of i£d. per ounce.
COMPENSATION; or, SET OFF.
avT€^€Ta<rts : dvriXXoyos : avrcXoywr/xos : <Tvfx\pr]<f)Lcrfx6s.
If two persons are mutually indebted to the same amount and at
the same time, each may claim that the Debt which he has against
the other shall be taken in payment of the Debt he owes. Each
Debt is, therefore, Legal Tender, or Money, with respect to the
other, and neither party can demand specie from the other.
This is termed Compensatio. Thus Modestinus says (Dig. 16,
2, 1) — "Compensatio est Debiti et Crediti inter se contributio.,,
Basilica 24, 10, 1 — " avre^ercwris «rriv yj&ovs #ccu Savturfxaros
avTcAAoyos."
Compensation is the mutual Set Off of Debts and Credits.
If the Debts are equal, each is payment for the other ; they are
weighed and Set Off against each other.
If the Debts are unequal, equal amounts compensate each other,
and the balance only is due in money.
Simple as this may appear, it took a long time, both in Roman
and English Law, to arrive at it.
In early Roman Law, Compensation was not allowed as a matter
of right, each party had to bring his action against the other.
Afterwards, in the time of Gaius (Inst. iv. 61-68), Compensation
was not held to be payment, but the Praetor, or Equity Judge,
allowed the counter debt to be pleaded as a defence to the action of
debt.
But the absurdity of this at last became apparent Pomponius
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C] Compensation; or, Set Off 305
says — " Ideo Compensatio est necessaria quia interest nostra potius
non solvere quam solutura repetere."
Therefore Compensation is necessary \ because it is our interest rathtr
not to pay \ than to recover back what we have paid.
Marcus Aurelius allowed Compensation as a matter of right, and
thus mutual Debts became Money, or Legal Tender, with respect to
each other.
So it was enacted (Cod, 4, 31, 4, 14) — "Si constat pecuniam
inviam deberi, ipso jure pro soluto compensationem haberi opertet."
If the mutual debts are proved. Compensation is to be held as
payment as a matter of right.
So also — " Compensationes debitorura ipso jure fient."
BasiL 24, 10, 21 — "01 t&v xpemv <rvfjL\fa<f>txrfAol I8i<p 8i#caiq>
yivovrai.1*
Now Compensation of Debts is a legal right
Bankers had, however, always been obliged to allow Compensation
for counter claims.
The rule of the Common Law of England was the same as the
early law of Rome. If two persons were mutually indebted, each
had to bring his action against the other.
Equity, however, which adopted the law of the Pandects and the
Basilica, always allowed Compensation or Set Off.
In many cases the rule of Common Law worked great injustice.
If a person and a bankrupt were mutually indebted, the person was
obliged to pay his debt in full, and only received a dividend on his
own from the bankrupt's estate. To remedy this, the Act (Statute 4
Anne, c. 17) allowed set-off in cases of bankruptcy, and this was
extended by Statutes 2 Geo. ii. c. 22, s. 12, and 8 Geo. ii. c 24,
§4.
But, by the Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 36 and 37 Vict.
(1873), c- 66, which enacts that, in all cases in which the rules of
Equity conflict with those of the Common Law, the rules of Equity
shall prevail, Compensation is allowed in all cases. Hence, if two
persons are mutually indebted in equal amounts, due and payable at
the same time, each Debt is Money, or Legal Tender, for the other.
Both debts must have actually accrued due at the time, to be
subjects of Compensation.
Ulpian says (Dig. 16, 2, 17) — "Quod in diem debetur non
coropensabitur antequam dies venit."
BasiL 26, io, 7 — "rb wo fiy&pav irp6 rijs rjpcpas ov o-v/A^^tfera* "
A Debt which is not due cannot be compensated.
As for instance, if a banker holds a customer's acceptance not yet
x
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306 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
due, he cannot retain a balance on his customer's account to meet
it, because his customer's debt does not come into existence until
the bill becomes due.
So if a banker holds a merchant's acceptance not yet due, and if
the merchant holds Notes of the banker, the banker must pay his
Notes on demand, and cannot set off the merchant's acceptance,
because the merchant's debt has not yet come into existence.
So, for a similar reason, if two merchants hold each other's
acceptances, one of which is due, and the other not yet due, they
cannot be compensated
If a Debt, which was not yet due, was set against a Debt which
had become due, it was termed Deductio (Gaius, Inst. iv. 57).
The following are examples of Compensation —
1. Suppose that two bankers issue Notes, and each has got
possession of ;£ioo in the Notes of the other. Each tenders the
other his own Notes in payment of his own Debt.
Each banker is two persona ; he is Creditor, and has a Right
of action ( + ^100) against the other; and each is Debtor, or has
the Duty to pay ( -^100) his own Notes to the other.
So long as each banker holds the Notes of the other, there
are, of course, ^200 of Rights of Action, Credits, or Debts, in
existence.
But when they exchange Notes, each tenders to the other the
Debt he has against him, in payment of the Debt due to him ; that
is Compensation.
Each banker still continues to be two persona; but instead of
each being Debtor to the other, each is now Debtor to himself.
It is a case of double Confusio, Each Debt is now extinguished
by Confusio. Each obligation is now extinguished, and the ^200
cease to exist as Economic Quantities.
2. Suppose that a banker holds a merchant's acceptance for
;£ioo, which has become due; suppose that the merchant holds
^100 of the banker's Notes, or has an account with him. When
the banker demands payment of his acceptance from the merchant,
the merchant tenders him bis own Notes in payment ; or the banker
simply writes off the amount of his acceptance from the merchant's
account ; and as before, both Obligations are extinguished by
Confusio.
3. Suppose that two merchants have issued equal acceptances,
each due on the same day. Suppose also that the acceptance
of each merchant comes into the possession of the other. On the
day of payment, each merchant tenders to the other his own
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acceptance in payment of the acceptance due to him ; this, as before,
is a double Confusio ; and both Obligations are extinguished.
This form of Compensation was formerly very extensively used on
the Continent, before bankers discounted mercantile bills.
At numerous centres of commerce, Lyons, Antwerp, Nuremberg,
Hamburg, and many others, there were held great fairs, every
three months.
The merchants, instead of making their bills payable at their own
houses, where they must have kept large sums in cash to meet them,
made them payable only at these fairs. In the meantime their bills
circulated all over the country, performing the part of money, and
got covered with indorsements.
On a certain day of the fair the merchants met together, and
presented their acceptances to each other; and if their respective
claims were equal, they were balanced and paid by being exchanged
against each other, by Compensation. By this means an immense
commerce was carried on and liquidated without any specie at all.
Boisguillebert, one of the morning stars of modern Economics, says
that at the fair of Lyons, transactions to the amount of 80,000,000
(livres?) were Settled without the use of a single coin.
CONFUSIO-MERGER.
When a person has issued a Right of Action against himself, and
it comes again in any way into his own possession, so that he
has both the Right to demand and the Duty to pay himself, it
is termed Confusio, or Concursus Debiti et Crediti in Roman Law ;
fu£is, in Greek Law ; and Merger in ours.
It was universally agreed that Confusio, or Conatrsus Debiti et
Crediti, or /ai£is, of a simple Debt extinguished the Obligation ; but
how it does so has given rise to much subtle speculation, and
for centuries puzzled Jurists and Divines. It was a problem in
Mercantile Jurisprudence exactly similar to the doctrine in Algebra
that — x — gives + , which was for centuries acknowledged as an
empirical dogma, but of which the scientific explanation has only
been fully given in very recent times. The Divines alleged,
that a Right once created cannot be destroyed; and the Jurists
said, that the Right being transferred to the Debtor, he could
not sue himself; and, therefore, that the Obligation was extin-
guished.
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308 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
This explanation, however, is not satisfactory ; because there are
cases in which a man may sue himself; he may fulfil two characters,
or persona \ and as one persona, or character, he may sue himself as
another persona.
Moreover, this would only show that the Right is suspended,
or in abeyance, and not that it is actually extinguished ; and some
eminent Jurists seem to take this view (Stair's Institutes of the Law
of Scotland, book i. tit. 18, § 9).
Moreover, in several cases, a Confusio, or Concursus Debiti et
Crediti occurs, in which the Right and the Duty unite in the same
person and are not extinguished, but may afterwards be separated.
(Stair, ut supra; ErskinJs Institutes of the Law of Scotland, book iii.
tit. 4, § 23 ; BelVs Dictionary of the Law of Scotland, art. Confusio.)
The following considerations, however, will give a satisfactory
solution of this juridical puzzle.
When one person is a Creditor, and another is a Debtor, they are
two characters ox persona.
If then the Right of Action comes into the possession of the
Debtor, he now ful61s two characters, or persona. The two persona
exist, though they are now united in one individual ; just the same
as they did when in separate individuals. And these two persona
may deal with one another exactly in the same way as when
they were separate individuals. They may agree to extinguish the
Obligation by either of the three methods by which Obligations are
extinguished (Acceptilation). The Obligation then is not suspen-
ded, or in abeyance ; it is absolutely extinguished and annihilated.
Thus this perplexity, which was held by Jurists for centuries to be
insoluble, is now removed.
CONSUMPTION.
Consumption in Economics is the correlative term to Pro-
duction.
The Producer is the person who offers a product for sale in
commerce; the Consumer is the person who purchases it for his
own use and enjoyment, and takes it out of Commerce.
Hence Production and Consumption constitute Exchange.
A great deal of misconception has been introduced into
Economics in recent times, by the unfortunate fact that the
English word Consumption represents two French words, Con-
somption and Consommation.
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Now Consomption comes from Consumer, which necessarily
means destruction. But Consommation comes from Consommer,
which means to finish, to accomplish, to complete, and in no way
involves destruction.
Now Consommation is the technical term in French Economics
for Consumption, and what we have to do is to determine the
meaning of Consommation in French.
The Economists termed the person who brought a product into
the market and offered it for sale, the Producteur ; and the person
who purchased it for use and enjoyment, and took it out of
commerce, the Consommateur, or the Acheteur- Consommateur, the
Buyer-Consumer.
Consommation is derived from Consommer, which comes from the
Latin Consummare, to complete, to accomplish.
Thus La Fontaine says — " En peu de jours il consomma Taffaire."
— " In a few days he completed the transaction. "
So Pascal says— "On vachercher et consommer la demonstration."
— " We must now seek for and complete the proof."
So Dupuis says — "Durant laquelle se consotnme le grand ouvrage."
— " During which the great work is completed?
Another writer says — "Le sacrifice dTsaac, qui ne fut point
consomme, fut Timage de celui qui fut consommi sur la croix."
— "The sacrifice of Isaac which was not completed, was the type of
the one which was completed on the Cross."
We need not multiply instances, as every French scholar knows
well enough that the genuine sense of consommer is to Complete, to
Accomplish.
And this was the meaning universally given to Consommation by
the early French Economists.
Thus Le Trosne says — "There is this difference between an
exchange and a sale, that in an exchange everything is completed
(consommi) for each party ; they have the thing which they wished
to procure, and have only to enjoy it. In a sale, on the contrary',
it is only the buyer who has gained his object, because it is only he
who is able to enjoy. But all is not finished (termini) for the
seller."
Also — "Exchange arrives directly at its object, which is com-
pletion {consommation) ; there are only two terms, and it is finished
(se termine) in one contract. But a contract in which Money
intervenes is not completed (consommi), because the seller must
become a buyer, either by himself, or by the interposition of him
to whom he transfers his money. There are, therefore, to arrive at
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310 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
completion (consommation), which is the final object, at least four
terms and three contractors, of whom one intervenes twice."
So Blanqui says — " Toutes les transactions devaient se consommer
par forme d'&hange." — " All business must be completed in the form
of an exchange."
So Cournot says — " Oil se consomment les achats et les vents." —
" Where sales and purchases are completed."
Michelet says — "II ne consomme rien, ne finit rien." — "He com-
pletes nothing, finishes nothing."
Consommation, or Consumption, then, in the language of the
early French Economists, simply meant the completion of an
Exchange. Suppose, for example, that a painter and a sculptor
agree to exchange a picture and a statue. When the painter has
received the statue and the sculptor has received the picture, each
has Produced, i.e., offered in exchange his own work, and has
Consummated his desire by obtaining the object he wished to
enjoy. And the Exchange is Consummated, or Completed,
because each has obtained a Satisfaction. Hence was effected
what the early Economists called a complete Exchange. But there
was no idea of Destruction in this reciprocal Consummation of
desires.
The Consommateur, or Consumer, then, was the person who
Consummated, Completed, or Accomplished the desire of the
Producer. The Producer brings forward something and offers it
for sale : but it is the Purchaser who gives Value to it : it is he who
crowns the work, and Consummates the desire of the Producer:
or completes the transaction by purchasing the product by giving
something in exchange for it : which is its value. The consumer,
therefore, meant nothing but the Purchaser, or Customer.
Thus Consommation was used by the early French Economists to
mean simply Demand.
Thus Boisguillebert, the morning star of modern Economics,
says — " Consommation {Demand) is the principle of all Wealth."
" All the revenues, all the riches in the world, both of a prince
and his subjects, only consist in Demand (consommation) : all the
most exquisite fruits of the earth and the most precious products
would be nothing but rubbish if they were not Demanded
(Consomme's)"
The word Consumption as hitherto used in Economics, is a
complex term, for while production was used to mean obtaining a
product and bringing it into commerce, Consumption, or Con-
sommation as the French word is, was used by the Physiocrates to
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C] Consumption 3 1 1
mean purchasing a product, taking it out of commerce, and using
or enjoying it. And as a considerable part of Economical products
were the fruits of the earth, which are destroyed in their use and
enjoyment, this secondary and accidental sense of destruction came
to be considered as the primary one.
Smith uses the words "consume," " consumption," and "con-
sumable goods," but, as usual, gives no definition of what he means
by them. The introduction to the Wealth of Nations opens thus —
"The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally
supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniences of life which it
annually consumes, and which consist always either in the immediate
produce of that labour, or in what is purchased with that produce
from other nations.
" According, therefore, as this produce, or what is purchased with
it, bears a greater or smaller proportion to the number of those who
are to consume it, the nation will be better or worse supplied with all
the necessaries and conveniences for which it has occasion."
In Book ii., ch. 1, he says that when a man possesses sufficient
stock to maintain him for months, or years, he "naturally endeavours
to derive a revenue from the greater part of it, reserving only so
much for his immediate consumption as may maintain him till this
revenue begins to come in."
He also says in the same chapter' that as floating capital is to be
classed " money, by means of which all the other three are circulated
and distributed to their proper consumers.91
In chapter ii of the same Book he says — " Though the weekly or
yearly revenue of all the different inhabitants of every country in
the same manner may be, and in reality frequently is, paid to them
in money; their real riches, however, the real weekly or yearly
revenue of all of them taken together, must always be great or small
in proportion to the quantity of consumable goods which they can all
of them purchase with this money. The whole revenue of all of
them taken together is evidently not equal to both the money and
the consumable goods, but only to one or other of these two values,
and to the latter more properly than to the former.
"Though we frequently, therefore, express a person's revenue by
the metal pieces which are annually paid to him, it is because
the amount of these pieces regulates the extent of his power of
purchasing, or the value of the goods which he can annually afford
to consume. We still consider his revenue as consisting in this power
of purchasing or consuming, and not in the pieces which convey it."
And further on in the same chapter, after showing that the use of
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312 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
money is to circulate, and distribute these consumable goods to their
proper owners, speaking of a banker's notes, he says that — "The
same exchanges may be made, the same quantity of consumable
goods may be circulated and distributed to their proper consumers by
means of his promissory notes to the value of ;£ 100,000, as by an
equal value of gold and silver."
In Book IV. chu viii., he says — "Consumption is the sole end
and purpose of all Production ; and the interest of the producer
ought to be attended to only so far as it may be necessary for
promoting that of the consumer. The maxim is so perfectly self-
evident, that it would be absurd to attempt to prove it. But in
the mercantile system, the interest of the consumer is almost con-
stantly sacrificed to that of the producer ; and it seems to consider
production, and not consumption, as the ultimate end and object
of all industry and commerce." And in a great number of other
passages, which we need not quote, Smith evidently means the
purchaser by the word consumer.
J. B. Say says1 — "The reader must understand that as Pro-
duction is not the creation of matter, but the creation of utility,
so consumption is not the destruction of matter, but the destruction
0/ utility. The utility of a thing once destroyed, the first foundation
of its value, which made it sought for, which establishes the demand
for it, is destroyed. Thenceforth it has no value ; it is not a portion
of wealth.
" Hence, to consume (consommer), to destroy the value of things, to
annihilate their value, are expressions whose meaning is absolutely
the same, and corresponds to that of the words produce, give utility,
create value, whose meaning is also the same.
"All consumption, being the destruction of value, is not measured
by the volume, the number, or the weight of the products con-
sumed, but by their value," and so on.
Again he says2 —
" Consommateur : Is he who destroys the value of a product,
either to produce another, or to satisfy his tastes or wants.
"Consommation : Consommer : to consume (consommer) is to
destroy the value of a thing, or a portion of its value, by destroying
the utility which it had, or a portion of that utility.
"We cannot consume (consommer) that which cannot be destroyed.
Thus we can consume the service of an industry, and not the
industrial faculty which has rendered this service: the service of
land, but not the land itself,
1 Traiti% div. ill. ch. i. ' Epitome at the end of the TraUL
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"A value cannot be consumed twice; for to say that a thing
is consumed is to say that it does not exist any more.
"Everything which is produced is consumed; therefore every
value created is destroyed, and was only created to be destroyed. "
Again he says1— "The most immediate effect of every kind of
consumption (consummation) is the loss of value, and therefore of
wealth, which follows for the possessor of the product consumed
(consommi). This effect is constant, inevitable, and we must never
lose sight of it in reasoning on these matters. A product consumed
(consommi) is a value lost for all the world and for ever."
And this meaning of consumption as destruction has been widely
adopted by writers. Thus Malthus says2 — "Consumption; the
destruction, wholly or in part, of any portions of wealth"; and
" Consumption is the great purpose and end of all production."
So McCulloch says — " By consumption is meant the annihilation
of those qualities which render commodities useful or desirable.
To consume the products of art and industry is to deprive the
matter of which they consist of utility, and consequently of the
exchangeable value communicated to it by labour. Consumption
is, in fact, the end and object of human exertion; and when a
commodity is in a fit state to be used, if its consumption be de-
ferred, a loss is incurred."8
To this, Senior has well answered4 — "That almost all that is
produced is destroyed, is true ; but we cannot admit that it is pro-
duced for the purpose of being destroyed. It is produced for the
purpose of being made use of. Its destruction is an incident to
its use, not only not intended, but as far as possible avoided. In
fact, there are some things which seem unsusceptible of destruction,
except by accidental injury. A statue in a gallery, or a medal,
or a gem in a cabinet, may be preserved for centuries without
apparent deterioration. There are others, such as food and fuel,
which perish in the very act of using them ; and hence as these
are the most essential commodities, the word consumption has
been applied universally as expressing the making use of anything.
But the bulk of commodities are destroyed by those numerous
gradual agents which we call collectively time, and the action of
which we strive to retard. If it be true that consumption is the
object of all production, the inhabitant of a house must be termed
its consumer, but it would be strange to call him its destroyer;
1 Trait/, bk. Hi. ch. ii. * Definitions on Political Economy, p. 247.
1 Principles of Political Economy, p. 511.
4 Political Economy, p. 54.
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314 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
since it would unquestionably be destroyed much sooner if unin-
habited. It would be an improvement in the language of Political
Economy if the expression ' to use ' could be substituted for that
'to consume.' n At p. 14, Senior observes that "Demand is some-
times used as synonymous with consumption."
In fact, it is astonishing that men of ability should maintain such
a monstrous paradox as that everything which is produced is
destroyed; that it is only produced for the purpose of being
destroyed ; and that if it is not destroyed, a loss is incurred.
An architect builds a splendid Palace. He, the builders, and
the workmen, are, in the language of Economists, Producers ; the
palace is a product; are palaces produced for the purpose of being
destroyed ; and is a loss incurred if they are not destroyed imme-
diately they are produced?
An artist produces a great picture. Does he produce it for the
purpose of destroying it ? And is loss incurred if it is not destroyed
as soon as produced ?
A sculptor produces a great statue. Does he produce it for the
purpose of its being destroyed ? And is a loss incurred if it is not
broken in pieces immediately that it is produced?
J. B. Say says1 — "The English succeed in making very fine glass
for mirrors, and could supply them at a very moderate price, if the
enormous duties laid on the manufacture of glass in England did
not raise the product to a price which many consumers (consom-
mateurs) cannot afford."
Now did the Consumers of the mirrors smash them ? Were the
mirrors produced for the purpose of being smashed? And was a
loss incurred if they were not smashed immediately they were
produced?
It is said in Gil Bias, B. iv. c. 6 — "A book in great esteem
among the students, who have already consumed (consommS) four
editions of it." Now did the students buy these four editions for
the purpose of destroying them ?
Johnson, explaining the elementary principles of trade to Dr.
Wetherell, Master of University College, Oxford, says4-—" Here are
three profits to be paid between the printer and the reader, or in
the style of commerce, between the manufacturer and the consumer ;
and if any of these profits be too penuriously distributed the process
of commerce is interrupted."
Now do the consumers or readers of books purposely destroy
1 Cours, part iii. ch. 3.
1 Boswrll, sub anno 1776, vol. ii. p. 414, edit. 1822.
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C ] Consumption 3 1 5
them? Are books produced for the purpose of being destroyed?
And is a loss incurred if they are not destroyed ?
There are vast quantities of furniture produced which seem
absolutely indestructible except by violence, if properly protected.
The Scythian war chariot, the unique glory of the Florentine
Museum, seems to be made of wood which has attained the
solidity of iron, and shews that wood may be as durable as marble.
Now carpenters produce massive bookshelves and massive tables.
Are these bookshelves and tables produced for the purpose of being
destroyed? And is a loss incurred if they are not destroyed? So
far from their being destroyed, there seems to be absolutely no limit
to their durability. The Scythian war chariot is contemporary with
Abraham, and it is as fresh as the day it was made.
We need not multiply any more instances, as multitudes will
occur to any one who thinks on the subject for an instant. But it
clearly appears that if Consumption means destruction, the doctrine
that consumption is the end of all production is manifestly false ;
and to say that a loss is incurred if things are not destroyed as soon
as they are produced, is an absurdity so great that we can only
marvel how men of ability could put such a thing into their books.
In fact, this doctrine is only another example of that careless
and hasty generalisation which has caused so much mischief in
Economics. It is true that some things, such as food and fuel,
are produced for the purpose of being destroyed: destruction is
essential to their use. But there are many other things of which
destruction is only incidental to their use, such as clothes and many
other things; and also a vast number of things do gradually waste
away in the course of time, such as houses, watches, and innumer-
able other things ; but, so far from being purposely destroyed, the
greatest care is taken to preserve them and to keep them in repair ;
and there are multitudes of other things which are absolutely
indestructible except by violence.
But, even though it be said that the majority of things do wear
away in the course of time, Economics has nothing to do with their
destruction. As Economics has nothing to do with the various
processes by which products are obtained; but a product only
enters into Economics when it enters into commerce; so when
it is purchased and passes out of commerce it passes out of
Economics; and Economics has nothing to do with the mode in
which products are used or destroyed. The Economic phenome-
non is nothing but the exchange.
In the language of commerce the Consumer means simply the
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316 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
buyer. When Say speaks of the Consumers (consommateurs) of the
mirrors, he means merely the buyers of them. He himself says1 —
"The Consumers (consommatcurs) of products are their buyers."
When it is said in Gil Bias that four editions of the book were
consumed, it only means that they were bought When Dr.
Johnson speaks also of the Consumer, he means only the buyer.
In the language of Commerce, Producer and Consumer mean only
seller and buyer ; Production and Consumption together constitute
exchange, which is the true field and limit of Economics, and it is
by divagating from the true limits of the science that Economists
have caused all the confusion. Bastiat well says8 — " In general we
devote ourselves to a trade, a profession, or a career ; and it is not
from that that we expect directly the object of our satisfaction
We render and we receive services ; we offer and we demand
values; we make purchases and sales; we labour for others,
and others labour for us: in a word we are Producers and
Consumers."
By using the terms Production and Consumption in their true
and strict commercial sense we are enabled to get rid of the term
Distribution. The Physiocrates used commerce and exchange to
mean the whole passage of a product from its first seller (producteur)
through a series of exchanges to its last purchaser (acAeteur-con-
sommateur) ; the intermediate exchanges were denominated traffic.
But as a matter of fact, each of these transactions is a separate and
independent exchange, and an Economic phenomenon. The farmer
grows the corn, and produces it, i.e. offers it for sale in the market.
It then enters Commerce and Economics. The miller buys it from
the farmer ; he is the customer or consumer. That is one exchange,
or Economic phenomenon. The miller grinds the corn, and
produces, or offers it for sale to the baker, who is the customer, or
purchaser, or consumer of the flour. That is another exchange, or
Economic phenomenon. The baker bakes the flour into bread, and
produces^ or offers the bread for sale in his shop, and the public come
and buy the bread in his shop. They are the buyers, customers, or
consumers of the bread. That is a third exchange, or Economic
phenomenon. Then the bread passes out of commerce and
Economics, into use and enjoyment Now here is a separate series
of exchanges; each wholly independent of the others; each an
Economic phenomenon ; and all governed by the same great general
law. And of course an analogous course of reasoning applies to
1 Traitt, p. 349.
J Harmonies Economiques. Art *• Producteur Consommateur," p. 36a
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all products. Thus the term Distribution is absorbed in Production
and Consumption.
Sometimes, however, Distribution is used in the same sense as
Consumption. Thus, Turgot entitles his work Reflexions sur la
Formation et Distribution des Richesses." So Smith says1 — "The
causes of this improvement in the productive powers of labour,
and the order according to which its produce is naturally distributed
among the different ranks and conditions of men in the society
make the subject of the First Book of this Inquiry." Senior
defines8 Political Economy to be the Nature, Production, and
Distribution of Wealth. Now by Distribution these writers mean
consumption, or purchase. Smith says 8 — " The metal pieces of
which it (money) is composed, in the course of their annual circula-
tion distribute to every man the revenue which properly belongs to
him." And a little further on he says — " The same exchanges may
be made, the same quantity of consumable goods may be circulated
and distributed to their proper consumers " by paper as by money.
When Economists spoke of Distribution they invariably meant
Distribution by means of an exchange. For how is wealth dis-
tributed ? By no other method than that of exchange. If a man
wants to have bread distributed to him, he must have something to
give in exchange for it, such as shoes or other things. And if a
man wants shoes distributed to him he must have something such
as bread to give in exchange for them. Hence the shoemaker and
the baker are each producers, and the reciprocal distribution, or con-
sumption of each other's produce is an exchange. Hence we see
that the Production, Distribution, and Consumption of Wealth, the
Production and Distribution of Wealth, and the Production and
Comsumption of Wealth are identical expressions, and absolutely
equivalent to Exchange.
We therefore eliminate all ideas of destruction from the technical
conception of Consumption in Economics, and leave only purchase
as the true general meaning. We have seen that it is entirely
erroneous to assert that everything is produced for the purpose of
being destroyed : and that if Consumption means destruction, it is
not true to say that Consumption is the end of all Production.
Still less true is it to say that if Consumption be deferred, a loss is
incurred. But when we see that Consumption is merely purchase,
then it is true to say that Consumption is the end of all Production,
because Production means offering something in exchange, and
1 Introduction to Wealth of Nations, * Political Economy; introduction.
3 Wealth of Nations, bk. ii. chap. ii.
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318 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Consumption means taking it in exchange. So also it is true that
the quicker Consumption is, the more profit there is, and the slower
Consumption takes place, the less profit there is. We have shown,
under Rate of Profit^ that a profit made in a day is seven times a
greater Rate of Profit than a Profit made in a week, and, of course,
the longer it is deferred, the less it becomes. So if his product is
not consumed, or purchased at all, it is a total loss to the producer,
and he has lost the reward of his labour, as it is only consumption
which constitutes his product wealth, and his labour is not con-
summated, or completed, until he has got a reward for it. A shoe-
maker does not want a thousand pairs of shoes ; what he wants is
something in exchange for them — bread, clothes, fuel, house room,
etc., either directly, or the means of obtaining these things, which
is money; and unless his shoes are consumed, or bought, he can
get no satisfaction for his labour, which is thrown away, and not
completed. So a baker does not want a thousand loaves of bread,
but like the shoemaker, he wants the other necessaries, con-
veniences, and enjoyments of life, which he can get in exchange for
them. So a wine merchant does not want his hogsheads of port
and claret, or his butts of sherry : a cloth merchant does not want
his miles of cloth : a farmer does not want his acres of corn, or his
herds of cattle : a coalowner does not want his shiploads of coal :
but each and all of them want the other necessaries and con-
veniences and amusements of life which they can get in exchange
for them. A company of actors do not perform a play, nor a
troupe of opera dancers execute a ballet, for their own delectation,
but for what they can get in exchange for it ; and their labour is
productive just as it does or does not bring in returns. So no
producer wants the things which he himself produces, but only
what he can get in exchange for them, and the faster he can gain
things in exchange for his products the faster he increases in wealth.
Hence we see that in this sense, which was the one given to it by
those who originated it, it is true that Consumption is the end of all
Production; and that the faster the consumption takes place the
greater is the increase in opulence. And as Production and Con-
sumption constitute exchange, it is rapidity of exchange which leads
to national opulence.
A country which abounds with gold and silver coin cannot
properly be said to be wealthy ; any more than one which abounds
with machinery. So long as these stand idle, the country must
remain poor, like a manufacturing town in a strike. It is their
motion or circulation which generates wealth, and the rapidity of
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C] Copyright 319
that circulation which indicates the rate of increase or progress.
This consideration will enable us to solve a question which was long
agitated by Economists and statesmen. Which employment con-
duces most to national opulence ? From the time of Colbert to the
French Revolution, the question whether the towns or the country
most conduced to national wealth was keenly disputed, and accord-
ing as one side or the other prevailed, the one was encouraged and
cockered, and the other depressed Now, as the velocity of the
circulation indicates the rate of progress, whatever employment
causes currency to circulate with the greatest rapidity, most aug-
ments national opulence. Currency is the engine of circulation,
and industry is its motive power; whichever species of industry
drives the engine fastest, most rapidly augments the national wealth.
Now it is well known that of all species of industry, agriculture
causes the most languid circulation of the currency. By offering an
extra stimulus of reward, the productions of human industry can be
multiplied and quickened to an extraordinary extent, but the process
of Nature is slow, and cannot be accelerated at command.
Different trading pursuits cause a brisker circulation in different
degrees — all much faster than agriculture. Hence a purely agricul-
tural country must increase slower in opulence than any other, and
other countries very much in the proportion of their inhabitants
engaged in agriculture, as compared to other pursuits. Experience
amply verifies this remark. Poland and other countries, which have
few resources but agriculture, are the poorest and most barbarous in
Europe. Great Britain and Holland, in which the smallest pro-
portion of the inhabitants are engaged in raising food for the rest,
are the wealthiest, and other countries very much in similar pro-
portions. The instances are not many in which people have made
fortunes by agriculture, but there is scarcely probably a small
country town, where some industrious and energetic individuals
have not realized a competence by trading.
COPYRIGHT.
Copyright is one form of Incorporeal Property. It is the Right
to appropriate the profits to be made by works of literature and art.
Now this Right to appropriate the profits to be made by these
subjects can neither be seen nor handled, but it may be bought and
sold, or exchanged ; its Value may be measured in Money ; and
therefore it is Wealth.
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320 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
COST OF PRODUCTION.
We have defined Production to be the act of placing any product
n the market where it is offered for sale (Production). Hence
Cost of Production must mean the Cost of placing any product in
the market where it is offered for sale.
But Ricardo insisted that the expected Profit to be made by
selling the article, must be included under the Cost of Production.
This, however, is obviously inadmissible. The Cost of Production
is the cost of placing the article in the market ; its Value is the
amount it realizes in the market, and the Profit is the difference
between the Cost of Production and its Value. Ricardo excluded
from consideration in his treatise all commodities except those
which were capable of being produced in unlimited quantities by
human labour; and then he contended that Cost of Production
regulates Value. But he also maintained that the Quantity of
Labour expended in obtaining a product is its Value, and conse-
quently he made Quantity of Labour and Cost of Production
identical. This doctrine, obtained from the consideration of only
one small class of Economic Quantities, has exercised a most
baleful influence on English Economics, and now requires a
thorough investigation.
i. It has been shown in the first part of this work that the ruin
of a very large part of English Economics is owing to the undue
prominence which is given to Labour as the Cause of, and as
necessary to, Value. Smith begins by putting Labour in the fore-
front of his work as necessary to Value, for reasons which we ex-
plained in the first part of this work ; although he has completely
contradicted that doctrine in a subsequent part of it.
In Book I., ch. v., Smith has thrown the whole subject of Value
into the utmost confusion, by suddenly changing his notion of the
Value of a thing from being the Quantity of Labour, or Com-
modities, it will purchase or exchange for, to the Quantity of
Labour embodied, as it were, in its production. Hence the un-
fortunate and misleading expression, Intrinsic Value, has become
firmly established in Economics, which is not only most manifestly
self-contradictory, but it has greatly obscured the comprehension of
the whole subject, and especially the Theory of Credit.
Ricardo perceived Smith's inconsistency, and censured him for
it; but he has fallen into exactly the same contradiction himself
because he begins his work by defining the Value of a thing to be
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the thing it will exchange for ; and as he goes oh in his book he
changes the idea of the Value of a thing to be the Quantity of
Labour embodied in it
From this unfortunate idea not only has the term Intrinsic
Value become firmly established, but also the equally unfortunate
idea of an Invariable Standard of Value. Smith and Ricardo
imagined that if any commodity could always be produced with the
same Quantity of Labour, it would be an Invariable Standard of
Value.
Ricardo says: "If the Quantity of Labour realised in com-
modities regulate their exchangeable Value, every increase in the
Quantity of Labour must augment the value of that commodity on
which it is exercised, as every diminution must lower it"
Ricardo calls the Quantity of Labour required to produce a
commodity its Absolute Value, and says that if any commodity
could always be produced with the same Quantity of Labour it
would be an Invariable Standard of Value.
He says: "The Labour of a million of men in manufactures
will always produce the same Value."
Therefore, according to Ricardo, whether a commodity sells for
;£io, for ^'50, or for ;£ioo, it is of exactly the same Value !
Ricardo, however, constantly uses another expression as identical
with Quantity of Labour, namely, Cost of Production.
It is, however, quite erroneous to use Quantity of Labour and
Cost of Production as identical expressions, because nothing is
more common than for wages to rise or fall, while Quantity of
Labour remains exactly the same. Now Wages are certainly part
of the Cost of Production, hence Cost of Production constantly
varies, while Quantity of Labour remains exactly the same.
2. Even supposing, however, that Quantity of Labour and Cost of
Production remained the same, it is quite easy to show by numerous
examples that it is quite erroneous to say that they regulate Value.
(1) It is quite common in a coal mine to have different strata
of coal of different qualities. Some strata at the top may be of
excellent quality; others lower down may be of very indifferent
quality, mixed with shale and other rubbish ; now the coals obtained
from the inferior strata may require a greater amount of Labour or
Cost to obtain them than the superior coals. But will they bring
the same price in the market? Common sense and experience
show that they will not; but that the better qualities of coal will
sell for a higher price than the worse qualities, no matter what the
Cost of Production or Quantity of Labour may be.
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322 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
(2) Take the case of an orchard. The trees are of course
cultivated with the same amount of Labour or Cost. Consequently
each individual fruit must be the result of exactly the same Quantity
of Labour or Cost of Production. Yet everyone knows that out of
the very same orchard, and off the very same tree, fruit of very
different qualities will.be gathered. Will these different qualities of
fruit bring the same price in the same market? Common sense
and experience show that they will not: but that the superior
qualities of fruit will bring a higher price than the inferior qualities,
quite irrespective of Cost of Production or Quantity of Labour.
As an example of this, it is usual in the coffee plantations
in the East Indies to separate the berries into three sizes: the
larger, the middling, and the smaller : it is found that the value "
of the whole crop is much increased by this separation of the
berries : while the three sizes sell for very different prices. Now as
each heap is produced by exactly the same Quantity of Labour or
Cost of Production, it is evident that it is a manifest fallacy to
assert that Value is regulated by quantity of Labour or Cost of
Production.
(3) Take the case of an ox or a sheep. Every part of these
animals is the result of the same Cost of Production : and therefore
every part of the same animal ought to bring the same price in
the same market. But is this the fact? Common sense and
experience show that they do not : but that different parts of the
same animal bring very different prices.
(4) It is quite common for a street of houses to be built in a new
neighbourhood : and when first built they let for a moderate price :
but as population and fashion increase in the neighbourhood, the
rents of the houses, long after they are built, and are, perhaps
in a much inferior condition, will be much higher than they
were when the houses were new.
(5) All fruits of the earth are greatly affected by the qualities
of the soil they are grown in. There are few which are more
sensitive to the qualities of the soil and the influence of the
weather than the vine. The slightest difference in the qualities
of the soil, exposure to the sun or wind, produces the most marked
differences in the qualities of the wine, and on its price. It is
impossible to select an example to show more clearly the fallacy
of the doctrine that Cost of Production or Quantity of Labour
regulates Value than the culture of the vine.
Ricardo was so entiti of the doctrine that ail Value is due to
human Labour, that he maintained that the sun and air and
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fine weather and moisture have no effect on the Value of the
crops. He says — "But these natural agents, though they add
greatly to Value in use, never add Exchangeable Value, of which
M. Say is speaking, to a commodity. . . . But as they perform
their work gratuitously, as nothing is paid for the use of air, of heat,
and of water, the assistance which they afford us adds nothing
to Value in Exchange."
The glaring absurdity of this doctrine, so contrary to the plainest
common sense, is sufficient to condemn the whole of Ricardo's
system. In reply to this we may simply quote a paragraph from
a daily paper of June 3rd, 1880: — "The longed-for rains have
come at last, and though the showers as yet have been gentle
and rather local, the half inch of moisture which has refreshed
the fields during the last seventy hours has been worth at least a
million sterling. Every gallon of water which the thirsty soil has
drunk up might be appraised at a tangible money value, for it
has brought back life to the parched pastures."
If Ricardo's doctrine were true, that sun and air and water
have no effect on the value of the crops, it would equally follow
that bad weather, storms, and other calamities would have no effect
in diminishing their value.
In fact, if Ricardo's doctrine were true, the Value of the crop
ought not to be more than the Labour expended upon ploughing
and preparing the ground and sowing the corn : because human
labour ends there: all the growth and increase is the agency of
Nature.
The direct consequence of Ricardo's doctrine that Labour is
the cause of all value is that the growth of corn, and fruits, and
of flocks and herds, is due to human labour, a consequence which
was broadly asserted by some of his disciples.
The Expression Quantity of Labour is unintelligible.
3. When Smith and Ricardo say that Value depends upon
Quantity of Labour, the expression at first sight seems some-
what plausible, and has had many adherents; but the slightest
reflection shows that it is absolutely unintelligible. For when
things of different kinds are produced by different kinds of Labour,
how is it possible to compare Quantities of different kinds of
Labour?
Labour is the generic name for the exertion of Thought or
Abilities of any sort; and there are of course as many different
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J24 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
kinds of Labour as there are different species of Thought; and
these are quite incommensurable with each other, and can by no
possibility be compared with each other.
How can the Labour of a ploughman, a carpenter, or a bricklayer
be compared with the Labour of a Newton, a Raphael, or a Shake-
speare? How can we compare the "Quantity of Labour" in the
Principia with the " Quantity of Labour" in the San Sisto, Macbeth,
or the Messiah ? How are we to compare the "Quantity of Labour"
in the Comedy of Dante with the "Quantity of- Labour " in one of
Giotto's frescoes, or Ghiberti's doors of the Baptistery of Florence?
How are we to compare the "Quantity of Labour" in a Bethell
conducting a great law case, with the "Quantity of Labour" in
a surgical operation by Paget or Fergusson ? How can we compare
the Quantity of Labour in a watch with the Quantity of Labour in
ploughing a field or steering a ship ?
The fact is, that immediately we begin to endeavour to compare
different kinds of Quantities of Labour together the attempt is so
hopeless that it must be abandoned.
Absurdity of the Doctrine that all Values are Proportional to
Quantities of Labour.
4. The doctrine that Value is due to Quantity of Labour adopted
by Ricardo, as applied only to certain commodities, was carried to-
an extreme by De Quincey, a fervent admirer of Ricardo's, in some
dialogues on Political Economy.
One of the interlocutors asks if there is any one principle in
Political Economy from which all the rest may be derived.
The other replies that there is: such a principle exists in the
doctrine of Value; that the ground of the Value of all things
lies in the Quantity of Labour which produces them. Here is
that great principle which is the cornerstone of all tenable
Political Economy ; which granted or denied, all Political Economy
stands or falls. . . . Mr. Ricardo's doctrine is that A and B are
to each other in Value, as the Quantity of Labour which produces
A to the Quantity which produces B ; or, to express it in the very
shortest formula by substituting the term base as synonymous with
producing labour ; all things are to each other in Value as their bases
are in Quantity.
" I affirm that when the labourer obtains a large quantity of corn,
for instance, it is far from being any fair inference that wages are
then at a high real value ; that in all probability they are at a
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very low real value; and inversely I affirm that when wages are
at their very highest real value, the labourer will obtain the very
smallest quantity of corn. . . . But what is it that I assert?
Why, that there is no connection at all of any kind, direct or
inverse, between the quantity commanded and the value com-
manding. ... I should again be introducing the notion of a
connection between the quantity obtained and the value obtain-
ing, which it is the purpose of my whole argument to exterminate.
For my thesis is that no such connection subsists between the two
as warrants any inference that the real value is great, because the
quantity it buys is great or small, because the quantity it buys
is small; or reciprocally, that, because the real value is great or
small, therefore the quantities bought shall be great or small."
"Wages are at a high real value when it requires much labour
to produce wages, and at a low real value when it requires little
labour to produce wages ; and it is perfectly consistent with high
real value that the labourer should be almost starving ; and perfectly
consistent with low real value — that the labourer should be living in
great ease and comfort . . . Meantime I presume that in your
use and in everybody's use of the word value, a high value ought to
purchase a high value, and that it will be very absurd if it should
not. But as to purchasing a great Quantity^ that condition is surely
not included in any man's idea of value."
We have quoted this long extract in order to show the utter
confusion in the word Value which Smith, Ricardo, and their
followers have introduced into the science. The Value of a thing
is any other thing it will purchase : and of course the greater the
Quantity of that thing which it can purchase, the greater is its Value.
But by considering the value of a thing to be the Quantity of
Labour bestowed in getting it, the absurd conclusion necessarily
follows that the more labour is given and the smaller the result, the
more valuable the thing is. That is, according to De Quincey, a
man's labour is much more valuable when he gets jQio in wages
than when he gets £ 100 !
5. We will now show the absurd consequences of the doctrine
that all Values are proportional to the Quantity of Labour bestowed
on producing them.
It has been said that Macaulay received ,£20,000 for the copy-
right of his History of England. Now, 200 very fine oak trees
would sell for ^20,000 on the ground : also 1,000 cattle would seU
for ^£20,000 : also 10,000 sheep would sell for the same. There-
fore, according to this doctrine, the Quantity of Labour in Macaulay
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326 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
writing his History was equal to the Quantity of Labour in 200 oak
trees growing: equal to the Quantity of Labour in 1,000 cattle
growing : equal to the Quantity of Labour in 10,000 sheep growing !
A piece of ground on which a town is built sells for ;£ 10,000:
also a Bank Credit may be of the value of ;£ 10,000 : consequently
the Quantity of Labour in the piece of ground is equal to the
Quantity of Labour in the Bank Credit
A girl's head of hair sold, as we have seen, for £$ : therefore the
Quantity of Labour in the growth of the girl's hair is equal to the
Quantity of Labour in about two and a half sheep.
Such are the doctrines of Political Economy which are still
current in this country!
We have already seen that there is no labour at all in more than
about 20 per cent, of things which have Value.
But all these perplexities and absurdities vanish at once when we
clearly perceive that Demand is the sole cause of Value.
Error of the doctrine that Cost of Production regulates Value.
6. It has already been shown that it is a profound error to
suppose that Cost of Production regulates Value: and in practical
Economics it often happens that Value regulates Cost of Produc-
tion : i.e. Wages are regulated and adjusted by the Value of the
commodity.
(1) In the trial of W. Frend it is said — "But I believe it to be
a notorious fact that, in proportion to the fluctuating Value of the
manufactured commodity, the price of spinning a certain quantity of
wool has varied in different degrees downwards from one shilling,
which may be considered as the maximum."
(2) So it was said by a landowner in the East of England —
"Wages in the East of England during the present century — from
1800 to 1870 — were always regulated by the price of wheat flour."
(3) So an Essex farmer says — "It is a very old custom in the
East, South, and I believe in the West of England, to pay farm
labourers in proportion to the current price of wheat. When wheat
becomes dear the farmers, quite unsolicited, have been in the habit
of raising the wages of their men, and vice versd."
(4) So in the iron trade it has long been the custom to regulate
wages by the price of iron : and in speaking of a conference to
adjust differences between the Lanarkshire ironmasters and their
men, a sliding scale was agreed to that when the price of iron was
60s. per ton the men should be paid 5s. per ton : and that a
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variation of is. per ton, either up or down, should mean a rise or
fall of id. per ton in wages.
(5) So it was said in a daily paper — "One of the most general
movements in the coal trade is the adoption of the sliding scale
method of determining wages by the price of the Product of the
Labour. In nearly every one of the coal-producing districts there
have been adoptions of this principle: in some cases at isolated
collieries, and in others covering large associations. The principle
is not new in the trade; for it is well known that for two years
before the strike in Durham last year, a sliding scale arrangement
had been in force in that county, and in an allied industry — the iron
trade — there had been an adoption of the principle for two periods
under the auspices of the Board of Arbitration for the manufacturing
iron trade of the North of England. And in much earlier years it
is stated that in the lead mining industry a somewhat similar method
of determining wages was known. In the manufacturing iron trade
there are special facilities for gathering these data, which are the
best basis for such scales — figures showing the relationship between
prices and wages for years. In one of the great centres of that
trade the relationship has become in years so definite as to approach
to the dignity of a rule: and the old standard of 'shillings to
pounds ' is one well known. That is, for every pound in the price
of certain classes of iron the puddler should receive for his part of
the labour in producing that iron is. per ton. With this generally
acceptable rule, it was easy to define a scale of advances suited to
the special circumstances of the trade in a given district"
(6) So in the years 1872 and 1873 the price of coal rose
enormously, to the dismay of every householder in the country.
During this period also repeated rises took place in the wages of
the colliers. The public are never very nice in observing the order
of such events, and many persons thought that the long-prophesied
failure of our coal supplies had come ; and that the increased price
of coal was due to the increased cost of obtaining it. The com-
plaints of the public were so loud that a Committee of the House
of Commons was appointed to investigate the subject. They insti-
tuted a searching inquiry into the whole facts of the case, and they
clearly shewed that the enormous rise in the price of coal was due
to the immense demand for iron, every ton of pig iron requiring
three tons of coal, and every ton of rolled iron requiring six tons of
coal. The Committee said that they were satisfied that the prices
of coal which prevailed several years before the present rise com-
menced were so low that they did not afford a reasonable profit to
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328 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
the owners of collieries in general, nor such remuneration as the
workmen might, with regard to the hazardous nature of their labour,
reasonably expect
The witnesses examined by the Committee were unanimous that
it was the high price of coal that caused the workmen to demand
higher wages, and not the reverse. Mr. Baker said — "The iron
trade has, generally speaking, owing to its large consumption, ruled
the price of coal and wages too." Mr. Wardell said—" Wages have
advanced in proportion to the price of coaL" Mr. Dickinson said
that — "Coal has been selling at an unprecedentedly high price of late,
and the consequence has been that wages have been similarly high."
Mr. Macdonald said — "In every case in Scotland the rise in the
price of coal preceded the rise in the rate of wages. The workmen
followed the employers' demand upon the public with a demand for
an advance of wages. The advance of price was announced in the
papers, and always preceded the demand of the men. In one case,
where the men were satisfied that the rise in the price of coal was
injurious to the manufacturing interests of the country, they agreed
not to press their demand for wages if the employers would take off
the last advance of price." Mr. Halliday described the successive
rises in the price of coal, which were followed by a rise in wages.
He said that the custom from his youth upwards had been that the
men should have a rise of 2d. for every iod. rise in the price of coal;
which custom had, however, not been strictly followed in the late
rise* In 1869 wages were 3s. 6d. to 3s. 9d. a day. In 187 1 they
got an advance of 2d. per ton in consequence of the rise in coal. In
November 187 1, coal advanced iod., and the men got id. In
January 1872, coal rose iod., and the men got id. In May coal
rose another iod., and the men got nothing. In June coal rose
is. 3d., and the men got 2d. In July coal rose 2s. 64, and the men
got 3d. In September coal rose 5s., and the men got 3d. In
December coal rose 3s. 4&, and the men got 2d.
The Report says — " It is clearly shown that the reed order of
events has been the rise in the price of irony the rise in the price of
coal% and the rise in the rate of wages. The increased payment per
ton for labour employed in getting the coal cannot therefore be
considered as the primary cause of the large increase in the price of
coal ; a rise in wages followed upon rather than preceded a rise in
the price of coal."
The same system has found favour among our antipodean fellow-
citizens. It is said in the TYmes, July 31st, 1874 — "In view of the
difficulties that surround the labour question at home, I think it
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desirable to call attention to one mode of settling affairs of this sort
adopted by the coal-miners at Newcastle, to the north of Sydney. A
demonstration signalising the settlement was held lately. The
chairman of the miners' association took the opportunity to announce
the terms of agreement accepted by the miners and managers, which
were as follows — "First, that the minimum rate of wages payable for
hewing and all other work usually performed by miners at each of
the above-mentioned collieries shall be the rates current thereat prior
to July 23rd, 1872, when the selling price of second or best coal was
8s. per ton, and of small coal 3s. 6& per ton. Second, that, subject
to the above limit, the wages payable at each of the above collieries
for hewing and all other work usually performed by the miners shall
be regulated by the price of coat, and rise and fail with it . . . On
concluding the above, the chairman announced to coal buyers in
Victoria, South Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Batavia, and
India that no hindrance in future would exist through strikes to the
supply of ships — the commercial millennium of the port had
arrived; strikes and lock-outs were a thing of the past. Various
miners addressed the meeting in the same happy and reassuring
strain."
These instances are sufficient to prove the truth of the principle
which we have been endeavouring to enforce, that it is just as
often the Price of an article which governs its Cost of Production
as the reverse.
Cases in which Cost of Production appears to Regulate Value.
7. There are, however, undoubtedly some cases in which Value
appears to follow, or to conform to, Cost of Production ; and there-
fore hasty reasoners might say that Cost of Production Regulates
Value.
But we have now to determine in a scientific point of view
whether this is really so, or whether it is only apparently so;
whether the same phenomena cannot be accounted for or explained
by a much wider Theory. And if so, the general principles of
Natural Philosophy compel us to adopt the General Theory and
reject the Special one, which only accounts for one class of cases.
Ricardo says — "It is the Cost of Production which must ulti-
mately regulate the Price of Commodities, and not9 as has been
often said, the proportion between the Supply and the Demand;
the proportion between Supply and Demand may indeed for a
time affect the market Value of a Commodity, until it is supplied
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330 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. il
in greater or less abundance^ according as the Demand may be
increased or diminished ; but this effect will only be of temporary
duration. . . .
" The opinion that the Price of commodities depends solely on
the proportion of Supply to Demand, or Demand to Supply, has
become almost an axiom in Political Economy, and has been a
source of much error in that science."
He then quotes the doctrine of Say that Supply and Demand
regulate Prices at all times, but that Cost of Production is a Limit
below* which they cannot remain any length of time, because
Production would then be entirely stopped or diminished, and
Lord Lauderdale's Law, which we have given in a previous chapter,
and says —
"This is true of monopolised commodities, and indeed of the
market Price of all other commodities for a limited period. If the
Demand for hats should be doubled, the Price would immediately
rise, but the rise would only be temporary: unless the Cost of
Production of hats, or their natural price, were raised. If the
natural Price of bread should fall 50 per cent, from some great
discovery in the science of agriculture, the Demand would not
greatly increase, neither would the Supply: for a commodity is not
supplied merely because it can be produced, but because there
is a Demand for it. Here, then, we have a case where the Supply
and Demand have scarcely varied ; or if they have increased, they
have increased in the same proportion : and yet the price of bread
will have fallen 50 per cent., at a time, too, when the Value of
Money had continued invariable.
"Commodities which are monopolised either by an individual
or by a company vary according to the law which Lord Lauderdale
has laid down : but they fall in proportion as sellers augment their
Quantity^ and rise in proportion to the eagerness of the buyers
to purchase them : their Price has no necessary connection with
their natural Value. But the Prices of Commodities which are
subject to competition^ and whose Quantity may be increased in
any moderate degree, will ultimately depend, not on the state of
Demand and Supply^ but on the increased or diminished Cost of
their Production?
Mill agrees in this doctrine. He says that there is a Law different
from Supply and Demand, which regulates the permanent or average
Values of the class of commodities we are considering. And, in
agreement with Ricardo, he says —
" It is therefore strictly correct to say that the Value of things
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which can be increased in Quantity at pleasure does not depend
(except accidentally and during the time necessary for Production
to adjust itself) upon Demand and Supply: on the contrary,
Demand and Supply depend upon it."
"To recapitulate: Demand and Supply govern the Value of
things which cannot be indefinitely increased: except that even
for them, when produced by industry, there is a minimum Value
determined by Cost of Production. But in all things which admit
of indefinite multiplication, Demand and Supply only determine
the perturbations of Value, during a period which cannot exceed
the length of time necessary for altering the Supply."
The student will observe Mill's reasoning. He says that the
Value at any particular time is the result of Supply and Demand :
the plain meaning of which is that the Value at all times is the
result of Supply and Demand. And then he goes on to search for
a Law other than Demand and Supply which regulates their per-
manent Value ! That is to say, their permanent Value is regulated
by a different Law from that which regulates it at all times !
8. Malthus, who was .a good mathematician, naturally felt that
Ricardo's method of reasoning was inadmissible. He says —
" It has been shown that no change can take place in the market
prices of commodities, without some previous change in the relation
of the Demand to the Supply; and the question is, whether the
same position is true in reference to natural prices ? This question
must, of course, be determined by attending carefully to the nature
of the change which an alteration in the Cost of Production
occasions in the state of the Demand and the Supply, and
particularly to the specific and immediate cause by which the
change of Price which takes place is effected.
"We all allow that when the Cost of Production diminishes, a
fall of Price is almost universally the consequence ; but what is it
specifically which forces down the price of the commodity ? It has
been shown in the preceding section that it is an actual or con-
tingent excess of Supply.
"We all allow that when the Cost of Production increases, the
prices of commodities rise. But what is it specifically which forces
up the price ? It has been shown that it is an actual or contingent
failure of Supply. Remove these actual or contingent variations of
the Supply ; that is, let the extent of the Supply remain exactly the
same, without excess or failure, whether the Cost of Production
rises or falls ; and there is not the slightest ground for supposing that
any Variation of Price would take place.
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332 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
" If, for instance, all the commodities which are produced in this
country, whether agricultural or manufactured, could be produced
during the next ten years without Labour, but could only be
supplied exactly in the same quantities as they would be in the
actual state of things ; then, supposing the wills and means of the
purchasers to remain the same, there cannot be a doubt that all
prices would also remain the same. But if this be allowed, it
follows that the relation of the Supply to the Demand is the
dominant principle in determination of prices, whether market or
natural, and that the Cost of Production can do nothing but in
subordination to it, that is merely as it affects the ordinary relation
which the Supply bears to the Demand.
"It is, however, not necessary to resort to imaginary cases in
order to fortify this conclusion. Actual experience shows the
principle in the clearest light
"In the well-known instance noticed by Adam Smith, of the
insufficient pay of curates, notwithstanding all the efforts of the
legislature to raise it, a striking proof is afforded that the permanent
price of an article is determined by the Demand and Supply, and
not by the Cost of Production. The real cost of the education
would in this case be more likely to be increased than diminished
by the subscription of benefactors ; but a large part of it being paid
by benefactors, and not by the individuals themselves, it does not
regulate and limit the Supply ; and this Supply, on account of such
encouragement, becoming and continuing abundant, the price is
naturally low, whatever may be the real cost of the education given.
"The effects of the poor-rates in lowering the wages of in-
dependent labour present another practical instance of the same
kind. It is not probable that public money should be more
economically managed than the income of individuals; con-
sequently the cost of rearing a family cannot be supposed to be
diminished by parish assistance ; but a part of the expenses being
borne by the public, and applied more largely to labourers with
families than to single men, a fair and independent price of labour
adequate to the maintenance of a certain family, is no longer
a necessary condition of a sufficient supply. As by means of
parish rates so applied this Supply can be obtained without such
wages, the real costs of supplying labour no longer regulate the
ordinary wages of independent labour.
"In fact, in every kind of bounty upon production, the same
effects must necessarily take place ; and just in proportion that such
bounties tend to lower prices, they show that prices depend upon
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the Supply compared with the Demand, and not upon the Cost of
Production."
9. Having now presented to our readers the opinions of these
various writers, we shall endeavour to discover some principles
which may decide the controversy which is at the basis of the
whole theory of Economical Dynamics.
The doctrine, then, whose soundness we are going to investigate
is this, that there are two classes of cases of value, in the first of
which Cost of Production regulates Value, in the other the Cost of
Producing the last quantity raised regulates the Value of the whole.
Now, before we investigate the truth of these laws, we shall lay
down certain fundamental principles, drawn from the whole analogy
of Physical Science : —
/. There cannot be more than One Grand General Theory of
Value.
II. That if two, or more, Theories of Value will apparently
account for any class of phenomena of Value \ or Changes of Value,
that Theory only is to be held as the true one which accounts for all
the phenomena in the Science, and not that single class of phenomena
only.
Hence it is quite clear that, if in any particular class of
phenomena we have several theories which will apparently account
for them, we have, in order to discover which is the true law, only
to suppose a change in the relation of the quantities; and then
that theory only which holds good for the altered relation of the
quantities, and accounts for the change, is the true Law, and all
others must be rejected.
This is in exact conformity with the 3rd Aphorism of the Novum
Organum, book 1 — " Quod in contemplatione instar causae est, id in
operatione instar regulae est." — " That which in Theory is the Cause,
in Practice is the Rule."
The result derived from these principles is this, that the Law
according to which Changes of Value take place, is the Law of
Value at all particular times.
Now, as soon as these indubitable principles are laid down, the
day is lost for Ricardo and his followers ; because Ricardo himself
admits that the law of Supply and Demand governs the market price
of all commodities for a limited period. And Mill says that the
Law of Supply and Demand only governs perturbations of value.
Now this concedes the whole question. Because the law which
governs the Perturbations, or Changes, of Value, can be the only
true law of Value in all particular cases.
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334 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II
There are several cases where " Quantity of Labour " and " Cost
of Production" may be considered as equivalent, and the same
argument will apply to show that neither regulates value. But take
it as we may, either Quantity of Labour or money Cost of Produc-
tion, we shall show that the doctrine that Cost of Production
regulates Value is entirely false ; because, if this doctrine be true,
it must necessarily mean : —
i st That all things which are produced by an equal Quantity of
Labour or an equal money Cost, must be equal in Value, in
dependently of any other consideration.
2ndly. It must also mean that all changes in Value must be due
to changes in Cost of Production, and to nothing else.
3rdly. And if different things produced by equal Quantities of
Labour must be equal in Value, still more rigorously, if possible,
must it follow that all parts of the same thing, when once produced,
must be equal in Value.
But we have already given a number of examples to show the
entire fallacy of such a doctrine.
10. Ricardo says in the passage already quoted — "That if the
Demand for hats should be doubled, the price would immediately
rise; but that rise would only be temporary unless the Cost of
Production of hats, or their natural price, were raised." But if the
hats rose from the increased Demand, why should they fall again
without the Supply being increased ? If they are to fall again, why
should they have risen? If Cost of Production, Supply, and
Demand remain exactly the same after they have risen, how can any
Change in their Value take place? Ricardo has omitted to state,
what he meant, no doubt, that upon the rise of prices from the
increased Demand, a larger Supply would be produced, which
would again reduce hats to their former Value. But the omission
of this is the whole essence of the question. Because it was the
increased Demand which raised them, and it would only be the
increased Supply which would lower them. Thus showing that it is
entirely through the operation of Demand and Supply that all
changes in value take place.
Ricardo's doctrine that when prices are very high or very low they
are governed by the Law of Demand and Supply, but that at some
intermediate point they are governed by the Law of Cost of
Production, is utterly contrary to the Law of Continuity^ which
says that A Quantity cannot pass from one amount to another by any
change of conditions without passing through all the intermediate
magnitudes according to the intermediate conditions. If, therefore,
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the Law of Demand and Supply be true at any one point in the
range of prices, it must be true at all points.
11. Mill has on this, as in so many other cases, emitted doctrines
which are contradictory. Thus he says — "For this reason, and
from the erroneous notion that Value depends on the proportion
between the Demand and the Supply, many persons suppose that
this proportion must be altered whenever there is any Change in
the Value of the commodity; that the Value cannot fall through a
diminution of the Cost of Production, unless the Supply is
permanently increased; nor rise, unless the Supply is permanently
diminished. But this is not the fact"
But afterwards he says — " It is simply the Law of Demand and
Supply, which is acknowledged to be applicable to all commodities,
and which in the case of money, as of most other things, is
controlled, but not set aside, by the Law of Cost of Production,
since cost of production would have no effect on value, if it could have
none on Supply?
So also, in speaking of another class of cases, he says — " Since
Cost of Production here fails us, we must revert to a law of Value
anterior to Cost of Production, and more fundamental, the Law of
Demand and Supply."
Again, in speaking of the law governing International Values, he
says — "We have seen that it is not their Cost of Production. . . .
We must accordingly, as we have done before in a similar embarrass-
ment, fall back upon an antecedent law, that of Supply and Demand,
and in this we shall again find the solution of our difficulty."
Now these extracts exhibit the utterly unscientific character of
Mill's system, which is contrary to the fundamental principles of
Natural Philosophy. It is no more to be tolerated that different
classes of Economic phenomena should be governed by different
fundamental Laws of Value, than that different classes of Astrono-
mical phenomena should be governed by fundamentally different
theories ; or that different classes of Optical phenomena should be
explained on different theories of Light When the analyst seeks
for the Equation to a curve, he manifestly assumes that the Law
which is true at any one point roust be true at all points. For, if
not, how can there be a general Equation to the curve? If different
classes of Economical phenomena have different fundamental
theories, how can there be any General Equation in Economics?
How can it be a Physical Science? Now, as it is universally
admitted to be a demonstrated truth that a great many cases of
Value are governed by the Law of Demand and Supply, it follows
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336 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
that all cases must be so; and the distinctions which have been
made are contrary to the principles of Inductive Philosophy, and
must be swept away.
12. Wages are part of Cost of Production, and Smith says that
high wages cause high prices. We have shown that this is a com-
plete error, and that it is just as often that Wages, i.e. Cost of
Production, are governed by the Value of the product as the
reverse.
In a great number of cases it is impossible to say what the Cost
of Production of any article is, and the very fact of a market being
opened up for it is the very thing that confers Value on it In the
last century, eggs were at id a dozen in the Highlands of Scotland,
and salmon was so abundant that it had scarcely any saleable value
at all, there being no communication with the Southern markets.
When this communication was opened, eggs rose to 4d. or 6d. a
dozen, and salmon acquired a Value of about is. a pound. That
was because agents from the South came and bought up the pro-
duce; because eggs were, perhaps, is. 6d. a dozen in the London
markets, and salmon was 2s. 6d. a pound. Now, eggs were not
is. a dozen in London because they were 4d. a dozen in the
Highlands, but people gave 4d. a dozen for them in the Highlands
because they could get is. a dozen for them in London. What, then,
becomes of the Ricardian rule, that Cost of Production regulates
Value? In this case it was the Value of the eggs in the London
market that regulated their Value in the Highlands, and not the
reverse, and the same is obviously true of all other species of
produce.
13. The universal law in Economics is, therefore, that the
RELATION BETWEEN DEMAND AND SUPPLY IS THE SOLE REGULATOR
of value. This law, like the law of gravity, holds good in all
cases whatever. It not only governs the Value of any article, but
also governs the Value of every separate item of which that article
is composed. All circumstances whatever that influence Value can
be shown to do solely through their effect in altering the relation of
Supply and Demand
Price, then, is a perpetual struggle between the buyer and the
seller, and the circumstances which compel one party to yield, are
the onBy measure of Value at the time of the purchase. To say
that the Cost of Production regulates price is only true in this
sense, that no man would willingly sell any articles he has produced
at a less price than that, together with something additional, by way
of reward for his own labour, and he could not continue to do so
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for any length of time. But, having settled that in his own mind
as the lowest limit, he always endeavours to get as much more as he
can, without the smallest reference to the Cost of Production. On
the other hand, the purchaser cares nothing for the Cost of Pro-
duction ; his only object is to buy as cheap as he can, and he takes
no thought whether the seller is selling at a loss or not The result
of this will be that if the selling Value of any article falls below its
Cost of Production for a length of time, it will cease to be pro-
duced. Every man endeavours to produce as cheap as he can, and
to sell as dear as he can, and the two operations are quite inde-
pendent of each other.
When we say that the Relation between Supply and Demand is
the sole Regulator of Value, we mean to say that a Change of Value
depends solely upon a Change in that relation, and upon nothing else.
No change in the Cost of Production will make any change in
Value, unless it is also accompanied by a change in the relation of
Demand and Supply, and it is only through and by means of
causing such an alteration that a change in the Cost of Production
is usually accompanied by a change in Value.
In order to illustrate this, let us take a few examples ; let us take
any article, such as stockings, and let us suppose that at any given
time they bear a certain price in the market, no matter what, and
that there is a certain demand for them at that price.
Let us suppose that, at a certain time before the introduction
of machinery, a manufacturer employed 1,000 hands; let us also-
suppose that he at some time invents a piece of machinery by which
he can produce the same quantity of stockings, but at the same
expense as 50 men would be. Now, if he only produces the same
Quantity as before, as he will of course take the best price he can
get for them, the Demand remaining the same, it is quite evident
that no alteration in price will ensue, and all the profit accruing
from this diminution in the Cost of Production will go into the
pocket of the producer ; consequently, if he does not manufacture
any additional quantity, no alteration in the market price will follow:
everything will go on as before ; the only difference will be that that
particular manufacturer will make enormous profits, owing to his
sagacity and skill in inventing this machinery. But if the materials
for making the stockings can be supplied in unlimited quantities,
the manufacturer will naturally wish to increase the Quantity he
produces, and realise greater profits; but if he produce a greater
quantity than before, that increased quantity will not be sold, unless
offered at a diminished price, so as to increase the circle of buyers ;
z
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338 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
but as the Cost of their Production has been diminished to him, he
can afford to sell at a diminished price ; and the more he wishes to
sell, the more must the price be reduced. Now, it is quite evident
that the increased quantity of this single manufacture thrown upon
the market, and offered at a diminished price, will affect the prices
of the whole quantity in the market, because everyone else must
consent to sell at the same price to effect a sale at all. It is also
clear that every single manufacturer must accommodate his price to
the market price, and if he cannot produce at the market price he
will have to cease producing ; and as we may suppose that there are
several degrees of skilfulness and economy among the various
manufacturers, it is quite evident that at every successive diminution
of the market price, those in succession will have to cease working
who are least able to produce cheaply. Hence, it is quite clear that
it is the market price which regulates the quantity of expense that
can be afforded in producing, and that it is the quantity that can be
produced at the least expense, compared to the whole quantity that
can be sold, that regulates the market price.
Again, let us observe what is the result of a diminution of the cost
of production, according to various circumstances. The Northern
counties of Scotland export corn and cattle to the Southern markets.
They were served by a Steam Company, which had a monopoly of
the trade. The usual consequences of a monopoly followed. Those
which concern us here, as a question of Economics, were, that the
freights and fares were most extravagant, and all petitions for reduc-
tion were unheeded, as the Company thought there was no danger
of opposition. However, the people of the North could stand it
no longer, and they determined to provide steamboats of their own.
The natural consequence immediately followed, freights and fares
were reduced nearly one-half. Almost all the farmers subscribed
for shares in the steamer, and many of them said that if they
lost all the money sunk in the steamer, they would still be great
gainers by the saving of freights. That is, the diminution in the
Cost of Production (/>., the expense of placing their produce in
the Southern markets) went into their pockets. And why was
this? Because the additional quantity of corn, etc., thrown by
the Northern districts upon the Southern markets was a mere
drop in the bucket compared to the demand of the Southern
markets, and had no appreciable effect in lowering prices there;
consequently, all the profits arising from the saving of freight, and
the diminution of the Cost of Production, went into the pockets
of the Northern farmers and landlords.
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14. These considerations are sufficient to show the fallacy of the
doctrine, that it is the Cost of Production which Regulates
Price, or Value, On the contrary, it is generally the Value an
article is expected to have, when produced, that causes it to be
produced. The difference between the Cost of its Production and
its Value is called the profit^ and the course of a prudent man
would be, first to calculate the Cost of Production of the article,
then to consider what would be its probable Value when pro-
duced; and if the difference between the two, or the profit, is
sufficient to make it worth his while to produce it, he will do
so ; if not, he should try to discover some more profitable operation.
If the Value of the article when produced is only equal to, or
less than, the Cost of Production, he must sell at a loss, and
repeated operations of this nature will end by ruining him. The
history of all commerce is but too full of examples of the Value
of articles falling below the Cost of Production, and of mercantile
enterprises which never pay their expenses. There is but one way
by which a producer can govern price by the Cost of Production,
and that is when he can obtain a command over the Supply, and
limit it artificially, and not produce more than the public can be
made to buy at a particular price. The Dutch acted upon this
principle when they conquered the Spice Islands in the Eastern
Archipelago. With contemptible selfishness, they cut down three-
fourths of the spice-bearing trees, and so artificially enhanced the
Value of the remainder. It is also said that there is but one mine
in England which produces plumbago, or black lead for pencils, and
this being in the hands of one proprietor, he carefully limits its
annual produce to force up its price in the market.
15. It is necessary to observe that when we say that a change
in price invariably depends upon a change in the relation of Supply
and Demand, we by no means assert that the change in price is
directly proportional to a change in that relation, so that, for
instance, an addition of one-fourth of the quantity would pro-
duce a reduction of one-fourth in price. It is well known that
this proportion does not hold; and that a different proportion is
found to obtain among different articles. Nor, though attempts
have been made in some instances, such as corn, to discover the
relation that exists between the two, does it appear that any satis-
factory solution has been obtained. All that can be said is that
it is a change in the one that produces a change in the other,
without asserting that there is any fixed proportion between the
two changes, because it may very well be, and we believe it to
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34° Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
be the case, that that proportion follows no fixed law, but varies
according to time and circumstances.
It is perfectly manifest that any diminution of the Cost of Pro-
duction, through however large an extent of country it might
cover, would have no effect whatever in altering the market price,
until the extra quantity thrown upon the market bore an appreciable
proportion to the previous supply. And if districts of country are
excluded from markets, either by want of communication or by
prohibitive laws, then, when there are markets opened to them,
their produce will acquire an immensely increased value to what
it had before. That is, the opening of the markets will immensely
increase the Value of the produce in the country, and the increased
quantity of produce thrown upon the market will tend to lower
the Value of the produce in that market; and these two Values
will approach to each other in the inverse proportion of the
respective quantities, precisely as the space travelled through by
each of the two bodies under the influence of gravity is in the
inverse proportion of their masses. The establishment of steam
navigation enormously increased the Value of produce in the
north of Scotland; the repeal of the corn laws enormously in-
creased the Value of produce in the Danubian principalities.
Rules connecting Cost of Production and Value.
1 6. A consideration of the preceding examples will furnish us
with the following Rules regarding the relation between Cost of
Production and Value :
i. No change in Cost of Production will cause a change in Value
unless it is accompanied by a change in the relation of Supply and
Demand.
2. A Diminution in the Cost of Production, when effected without
an Increase of the Quantity produced, goes entirely to the benefit of the
Producer.
3. A Diminution in the Cost of Production, in cases where the
Quantity of the Product can be increased without limit, goes entirely to
the benefit of the Consumer.
4. A Diminution in the Cost of Production, in cases where the
Quantity can be Increased, but not without limit, goes partly to the
benefit of the Producer, and partly to the benefit of the Consumer;
and the benefit is divided between the two in the inverse ratio of
the extra Quantity added compared to the previously existing
Supply.
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Fundamental Error of Smith and Ricardo.
17. The systems of Smith and Ricardo, although there may
appear to be a difference between them, are nevertheless iden-
tical in their fundamental error. For they both look to the
wrong person as conferring Value on a product. They both
look to the Labour of the Producer as conferring Value ; whereas
it is unquestionably certain that the Demand of the Consumer
is the sole origin and cause of Value. Smith says that it is the
Labour which the producer bestows upon an article which gives
its Value; whereas it is perfectly certain that things have not
Value because Labour has been bestowed in producing them;
but much Labour is bestowed in producing them because people
desire to have them very much, and are willing to give a great
price to possess them ; and therefore they have great Value. But,
as Condillac observed long ago, things have not great Value, because
much Cost of Production has been bestowed on them; but great
Cost of Production is bestowed on them because they have great
Value when produced. Buyers do not give high prices because
sellers have spent much money in producing; but sellers spend
much in producing because they hope to find buyers who will give
more.
It is quite true that the natural effects of competition will in
many cases cause the price to approach very nearly to Cost of
Production : and Ricardo's law will apparently be found to be true.
But this is one of those cases which must be sedulously guarded
against in science, viz., to give in a careless form of adherence to a
form of expression which is radically erroneous because it appears
to account for phenomena.
Formerly philosophers thought that the motion of projected
bodies had a natural tendency to decay. They saw that the motion
of a projected body always gradually diminished and finally ceased.
It was quite easy to calculate results upon this principle. Given a
certain velocity of projection, it was quite easy to calculate when
the motion would cease, upon the supposition that it naturally
decayed. And the results would have agreed with the calculations.
What could be more satisfactory ? If, then, it is hastily assumed
that because results may agree with calculations, the principles of
these calculations are therefore necessarily true, these opinions
might have held their ground. But it is well known that modern
philosophers have entirely rejected the notion that motion has a
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342 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
natural tendency to decay. But they arrive at the same result by a
different process of reasoning. They say that motion has no
natural tendency to decay: but that in all the cases we see there
are counteracting causes at work, such as the resistance of the air,
friction, etc., which oppose it and finally destroy it And they
unanimously reject the former method of accounting for the results,
and adopt the latter. Hence we see that, though principles are
manifestly erroneous which do not account for results, yet it does
not necessarily follow that any principle which does account for
results is therefore necessarily true, because it may in fact happen
that several different principles may account for the result ; and it
requires judgment to decide which is the true one. Now the
Ricardian principle of Value is just like the former of those of
motion. It apparently accounts for results in some cases; and
therefore it may impose upon an unwary thinker, but it wholly fails
to do so in all others. But it is a dangerous and seducing error,
utterly false in principle, and has been the cause of multitudes of
calamities, and it is to be repudiated and rejected by all those who
study Economics in the true spirit of science.
CREDIT (see also Debt).
Credit, in the popular sense, is the esteem and confidence
in which a merchant is held, so that he can buy goods, not with
actual money, but by giving his Promise to pay money at a future
time — that is, he creates a Right of Action against himself. The
goods become his absolute property, exactly as if he had paid for
them in Money. It is a Sale or an Exchange. The Right of
action is the price he pays for them. It is termed a Credit — in
French a Crfance — because it is not a Right to any specific
sum of money, but only a Right of Action to demand a sum of
money from the merchant at a future time.
Now Aristotle said that Wealth is "Anything whose value can
be measured in money"; and in accordance with this, Mill says
that " Everything which has Purchasing Power is Wealth."
Hence, a merchant's Credit is Purchasing Power, exactly as
Money is. The merchant's Purchasing Power is his money
and his Credit. They are both, therefore, equally Wealth by
Aristotle's and Mill's definition. When a merchant purchases
goods with his Credit instead of with money, his Credit is valued
in money; because the seller of the goods accepts his Credit
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as equal in value to Money. Hence, by Aristotle's and Mill's
definition, which is now universally accepted, a merchant's Personal
Credit is Wealth.
Demosthenes was the first person, that we are aware of, to perceive
and declare that Personal Credit is Wealth and Capital.
He says (Against Leptincs, 484, 20), "Svotv dyaOotv ovroiv
liXovrov tc kolI irpib? airavra? Ilarr€v«r0cu, /xeifoy «rri to tiJs II«rT€ft>s,
vrrapxov rjfitv"
" There being two kinds of Wealth — Money and General Credit
— the greater is Credit, and we have it."
So also (For Phormion, 958) — "ct Se tovto dyvoets 6V1 Ilwrris
'A<fx>pfir) rtav vaxrtov €<nrt fuyurrq irpbs x/mj/uuxtut/aov vav &v
d'yv(w}<^€los.,,
"If you were ignorant of this— that Credit is the greatest Capital
of all towards the acquisition of Wealthy you would be utterly
ignorant"
Thus Demosthenes shews that Personal Credit is ayadd —
Wealth, property, goods and chattels; and 'Afopftrj — or
Capital.
Thus, though Personal Credit can neither be seen, nor
handled, nor transferred by manual delivery, yet it can be bought
and sold, or exchanged; its value can be measured in money; it is
Purchasing Power, and therefore it is Wealth.
And as Adam Smith declares that a man's Labour is his most
sacred possession, of which no person has the right to despoil
him, so to all Bankers, Merchants, and Traders, their Credit is
their most sacred possession, of which no man has the right, falsely,
to despoil them.
Hence, the Personal Credit of all Bankers, Merchants, and
Traders is an integral and colossal portion of the National Wealth,
just as the industrial faculties of working men of all kinds are.
So also the Credit of the State, by which it can purchase Money,
and other things, by giving persons the Right to demand a series
of future payments from it, is National Wealth.
Modern Economists include Personal Credit under
the term Wealth.
The Economists steadfastly refused to admit that Personal
Credit is Wealth, because they said that to admit that Credit
. is Wealth would be to maintain that Wealth can be created out
of nothing.
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344 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
But contemporary general and mercantile writers were entirely
against them on that point.
Thus, Daniel Defoe says {The Complete English Tradesman, ch.
xvii.), "Credit is so much a tradesman's blessing that it is the
choicest ware he deals in, and he cannot be too chary of it when
he has it, or buy it too dear when he wants it; it is a Stock to
his Warehouse; it is Current Money in his cash chest'1
So that keen metaphysician, Bishop Berkeley, who has many
searching questions on Economics in his Querist, asks:
Quest. 35 — "Whether power to command the industry of others
[U Credit] be not real Wealth?"
So Melon says (Essai Politique sur le Commerce, ch. xxiv.), " To
the calculation of values in Money, there must be added the current
Credit of the merchant, and his Possible Credit"
So Dutot says {Reflexions sur le Commerce et Us Finances, ch. L
art 10), "Since there has been a regular commerce among men,
those who have need of money have made Bills, or Promises to
pay money. The first use of Credit, therefore, is to represent
Money by Paper. The usage is very old; the first want gave
rise to it. It multiplies specie considerably; it supplies it where
it is wanting, and which would never be sufficient without the
Credit, because there is not sufficient Gold and Silver to circulate
all the products of nature and art So there is in commerce a
much larger amount in Bills than there is in specie in the possession
of the merchants.
"A well-managed Credit amounts to tenfold the funds of a
merchant, and he gains as much by his Credit as if he had ten
times as much Money. This maxim is generally received among
all merchants [Therefore, Credit is Capital].
"Credit is, therefore, the greatest Wealth to every one who
carries on commerce. "
So Smith says (bk. L ch. 10), "Trade can be extended as Stock
increases ; and the Credit of a frugal and thriving man increases
much faster than his Stock. His trade is extended in proportion
to the amount of both [i.e. his Stock and his Credit], and the
sum or amount of his profits is in proportion to the extent of his
trade, and his annual accumulation in proportion to his profits."
So Junius says, " Private Credit is Wealth."
Franklin says — " Credit is Money/ i.e. Purchasing Power.
Smith expressly includes " Natural and acquired abilities," under
the term Fixed Capital. Now, Mercantile Character, or Personal
Credit, evidently comes under the designation of "Natural and
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C] Credit 345
acquired abilities." Hence, Personal Credit is included by
Smith under the term Capital
No person has more explicitly declared that Personal Credit
is Wealth than Mill.
He says in his Preliminary remarks — " Everything, therefore,
forms a part of Wealth which has a Power of Purchasing.
He also says (bk. iii ch. xL § 3) — "For Credit, though it is
not Productive power, is Purchasing Power."
"The Credit which we are now called upon to consider as a
distinct Purchasing Power.
He also says (bk. iii. ch. xii. § 3) — " The amount of Purchas-
ing Power which a person can exercise, is composed of all the
Money in his possession, or due to him [i.e. the Bank Notes, Bills,
and Credits he has], and of all his Credit
11 Credit, in short, has exactly the same Purchasing Power
with Money."
And many other passages to the same effect
Now, if Mill lays down as the fundamental definition of Wealth —
" Everything that has Purchasing Power is Wealth,
And, if he says —
" Credit is Purchasing Power" ;
Then the necessary inference is that —
"Credit is Wealth."
That is a syllogism in which Mill is safely padlocked, and from
which there is no escape.
Hosts of passages from other writers, to a similar effect, might be
cited if necessary : but that would be wholly superfluous, because
an argument is to be judged of by its own intrinsic force, and not
by the number of persons who assert it.
The simple statement of the case is this — ancient writers unani-
mously held, and modern Economists have come, at last, to agree
with them, that the only true definition of wealth is— everything
whose value can be measured in money — or which can be bought
and sold — everything which has Purchasing Power. Now, as
Personal Credit can be valued in money, and is Purchasing Power,
it necessarily follows, by the definition, that Personal Credit is
Wealth.
Personal Credit, or Mercantile Character, is Purchasing Power :
and, as first pointed out by Demosthenes, and now universally
acknowledged, is Wealth. But Personal Credit does not enter
into Economics until the merchant actually exercises his Credit,
and makes a purchase with it.
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346 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
When a merchant purchases goods " on Credit," it is an absolute
Sale, just as much as if it had been effected with money. Every
transaction whatever, on Credit, is a Sale or an Exchange.
At the very instant that the Property in the goods, is transferred
to the buyer, a Contract, or Obligation, is created between the two
parties, which consists of two parts : —
1. The Right to Demand payment at the due time, in the
person of the seller, or Creditor.
2. The Duty to Pay in the person of the buyer, or Debtor.
These two quantities constitute the Contract, or Obligation, or
Bond of Law between the two parties.
The obligation consists of two equal and opposite Quantities,
which may be denoted by this symbol < __*i. \ : where the
( + ;£ioo) denotes the Creditor's Right to Demand payment, and
the (-;£ioo) denotes the Debtor's Duty to Pay.
And, if either of these Quantities be destroyed, the other is also
destroyed with it.
Hence, as these two Equal and Opposite Quantities come into
existence together, and can only exist together, and vanish together,
they are analogous to Polar Forces.
We have shewn the great practical importance of applying the
Positive and Negative signs to Property (Property), and of
denoting the Right to a Property in things which have already
come into possession as Positive, and the Right, or Property, to
things which will only come into possession at a future time as
Negative. Because many species of Property are of a mixed
nature : that is, the entire Property in them consists partly of
Corporeal Property, and partly of Incorporeal Property. We have
exemplified this in the Theory of the Value of Land (Annuity).
A successful Trader is an Economic Quantity analogous to
the Land.
Now, a person exercising any profitable business, or profession, is
an Economic Quantity exactly analogous to the Land.
The Land has produced profits in the past, but it has equal
capacity to produce profits in future.
So a merchant, or professional man, may have accumulated a
quantity of money as the fruits of his skill, industry, and ability in
the past. But over and above his accumulated money he has the
same skill, industry, and ability to earn profits in the future. His
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capacity to earn profits in the future is exactly the same as his
capacity to have earned profits in the past. And, of course, he
has the Right, or Property, in his expected profits of the future.
And he may trade in two ways : he may trade with the money he
has already acquired — the profits of the past : or he may trade by
purchasing goods by giving in exchange for them the Right, or
Property, to demand payment at a future time out of the profits he
expects to earn in future.
Personal Character, used to trade in this way as Purchasing
Power, is Credit, and, as we have seen that anything which has
Purchasing Power is Wealth, it follows that Money and Credit are
equally Wealth.
But it is evident that Money and Credit are Inverse and
Opposite to each other. Hence, if Money is a Positive
Economic Quantity, Credit is a Negative Economic
Quantity.
Bastiat well says (Harmonies Economiques, "Art. Capital," p. 210) —
"Thus it is a wonderful thing, and thanks to the marvellous
mechanism of Exchange, every service is, or may become, a
Capital. . . .
" That which is more surprising still, is that we can perform the
Inverse operation, however impossible it may seem at first sight
We can convert into an instrument of labour; into a railway, into
houses, a capital which does not yet exist, thus utilising the services
which will not be rendered until the twentieth century. There are
bankers who make advances on them, on the faith that the labourers
and the travellers of the third and fourth generation will provide for
their payment, and these titles on the future pass from hand to hand
without ever remaining unproductive."
The Function of Credit is to bring into Commerce the Present
Value* of Future Profits.
The true function of Credit is now apparent : it is to bring into
Commerce the Present Values of Future Profits.
When an estate in Land is sold, the Present Value of all its future
Profits is expressed and brought into commerce by the Money paid
for it
The total amount of the Shares in any commercial company,
banking, insurance, railway, or any other, denotes the value of the
existing property of the company, together with the total Present
Value of their Future Profits.
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348 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
So the money paid for the goodwill of a business, a copyright, a
patent, a professional practice, &c, is the Present Value of the
Future Profits.
So when a merchant or trader trades on " Credit," he brings into
commerce the Present Value of a Future Profit He buys the
goods or the labour, and gives as their price the Right to demand a
sum to be paid out of the expected future profits.
So when the State contracts a loan for any public purpose, it buys
the Money, and gives as its price the Right to demand a series of
payments out of the future income of the nation.
So when municipal corporations, and other public bodies, contract
loans for public purposes, they buy money by giving as its price the
Right to demand a series of payments out of the future income of
their constituents. That is, they bring into commerce the Present
Value of their Future Income.
So Credit in all its forms, and to whatever purpose it is applied,
-simply brings into commerce the Present Value of a Future Profit
The famous French wit, Rivarol, well said — " Man conquers space
by commerce, and Time by Credit ''
Credits payable in Services.
In every Obligation or Contract, the party who has the Right to
•enforce the performance of the Duty is the Creditor, and the party
whose Duty is to perform it is the Debtor.
The words of the Digest are general. A Credit is the Right to
•compel a person to Pay or Do something. Hence, large amounts
of Credit are payable, not in any material substance, money or any
other, but in Personal Services.
Thus, in feudal times, Rents were payable not only in money and
in products of the earth, termed Rents in Kind, but also in Personal
Services, and such Rents were termed Rent Services. And the
person who has the Right to demand such services is as much a
Creditor as the person who has the right to demand the payment of a
material substance, and the person who is bound to render a service
is as much a Debtor as the person who is bound to pay some
material substance.
A jaded legislator has taken shootings in the Highlands. On the
10th of August he goes to the office of the railway, and pays dye
guineas for a ticket to Inverness. That ticket is a Credit ; it is a
Bill payable in a railway journey to Inverness on demand.
A person wishes to see Irving in Hamlet. He has, perhaps, to
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buy a ticket for a box a fortnight in advance. That ticket is a
Credit, or Right of Action, or a Bill payable in seeing Irving in
Hamlet a fortnight after date.
A college engages one of its members, at a quarterly salary, to
give lectures to its students. The lecturer gives his lectures, and,
having done so, has acquired a right to demand his salary from the
College. This Right of Action is the Credit or the Debt
A member of the University gives lessons to private students.
The fee is paid either in advance or after the lessons given. If the
fees are paid in advance, the student acquires a Right of Action, a
Credit, or Debt, against his tutor, to demand so much instruction.
If the lessons are given first, the tutor acquires a Right of Action, a
Credit, or a Debt, to demand payment for his lessons.
The master of a household engages servants, and agrees to pay
them wages monthly, or quarterly, as the case may be. When the
servants have performed these terms of service, they have a Right of
action against their master for their wages. This Right of Action is-
a Credit or a Debt.
A person becomes a Fellow of the Zoo. In exchange for his.
subscription, he receives an ivory, entitling him to visit the gardens
as often as he pleases during a year. That ivory is a Credit
A person buys postage stamps. These stamps are Rights to
demand the Post Office to carry his letters to their destination.
The stamps are Credit
So there are innumerable other cases where persons contract to
perform professional services. These contracts to perform services
are as much Obligations as Contracts to pay material services.
Hence, Credit can purchase services exactly in the same way as.
money can ; it is a Purchasing Power which can effect any result
that Money can.
The Function of Credit is to bring into Commerce the Present
Values of Future Profits.
The true function of Credit is now clear.
It is a very common idea that credit is the goods which are
"lent," or the " transfer" of them.
Such ideas are utterly erroneous. We have shown that Credit is
the Right to demand some person to pay or do something either on
demand, or at some future time,
And the true function of Credit is to bring into commerce the
Present Values of Future Profits.
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350 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
When an estate in land is sold, the Present Value of all its Future
Profits is expressed and brought into Commerce, or circulation, by
the Money paid for it
The total amount of the Shares in any Commercial Company,
banking, insurance, railway, or any other, denotes the value of the
existing property of the company, together with the total Present
Value of their Future Profits.
So when a merchant, or trader, trades on " Credit," he brings into
commerce the Present Value of a Future Profit He buys
the goods, or the labour, and gives as their Price the right to
demand a sum to be paid out of the expected profits.
So when the State contracts a loan, it buys the money, and gives
as its price the Right to demand a series of payments out of the
future income of the people.
So when municipal corporations and other public bodies contract
loans, they buy money, by giving as its price the Right to demand
payments out of the future incomes of their constituents.
So Credit in all its forms, and to whatever purpose it is applied,
simply brings into commerce the Present Value of a Future
Profit, and thus augments the mass of Exchangeable, or Economic
Quantities, or Wealth.
ON THE SELF-CONTRADICTIONS OF J. R SAY AND
J. S. MILL ON CREDIT.
In the preceding chapter we have explained the Juridical and
Mathematical principles of the Great System of Credit ; and have
pointed out the errors which lay writers, literary and mathematical,
have fallen into from a want of knowledge of the principles of
Mercantile Law. But though these writers committed errors, they
did not flatly contradict themselves.
We should only be too glad now to exhibit the application of
these principles in practical business: but we are compelled to
delay our progress in order to show the incredible self-contradictions
of Say and Mill on the subject of Credit It is, as we conceive, an
essential duty of such a work as this, not only to explain the true
principles of the subject, but to point out and refute all the current
errors which have obtained a wide hold on popular opinion : and
the mischief done by Say and Mill is infinitely too serious to be
passed over.
Jurists of all nations include Rights of action, such as Credits or
Debts, under the terms Pecunia, Resy Bona, Merx: xFlfMTai
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vpay/wra, irXovros, ayadd, oIkos, ovcrta, &c. : goods, chattels, mer-
chandise, commodities: and writers on Economics, seeing that
Credits in the form of Bank Notes, Bills of Exchange, &c, perform
exactly the same functions in circulating commodities as Money,
class Credit under the title of Capital, without giving any very
nice definition of Credit or of Capital. But no one had worked
out the Theory of Credit : or had demonstrated its true limits.
Everyone knows, however, that in recent times the most un-
sparing ridicule has been poured on the expression that " Credit is
Capital" J. B. Say made the wonderful discovery that the whole
world, himself included, was under a delusion : and that when they
said that " Credit is Capital " they were such dolts as to maintain
that the same thing can be in two places at once !
Turgot first Erred on Credit
Turgot was the first person to introduce error on the subject of
Credit When at College in 1749, and only twenty-two years of
age, he began to reflect on John Law's system of Paper Money,
which had produced such a frightful catastrophe in France twenty-
nine years before. In a letter addressed to the Abbe de Cic£, he
used an expression which has been the keynote of a fallacy which,
developed by Say and Mill, has been sedulously propagated by
numerous writers, and has done boundless mischief in the subject
He says — " In a word, all Credit is a loan : and has an essential
relation to its repayment"
Here we see the gross confusion of ideas on the subject of
Credit at the present day. In this passage we see that Turgot
considers Credit to be an Operation. This is Turgors first vital
error. Credit is a Quantity. We have shown that Credit is the
present Right to a Future Payment : and how can the Right to a
future payment be an Operation ? It would be just as rational to
say that a guinea or a bill of exchange is a loan. * Turgot says that
every Credit implies a future payment : and for that reason it has
Value : and it may be bought and sold like any material chattel,
like Money ; but that does not make a Right a Transfer.
Turgot's remark, therefore, that every credit implies a future pay-
ment, had nothing to do with Law's Paper Money. Law under-
stood the principles of Credit better than any man of his day : and
so long as he confined himself to Credit, he was the first financier
of his age. His bank was magnificently successful, as we have
shown elsewhere. It was not his system of Credit which produced
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352 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. IL
the catastrophe, but his system of Paper Money : he saw that the
powers of Credit, though immense, were limited : and his plan was
to create Paper Money beyond the limits of Credit, which was
not redeemable in Money, any more than Money itself. His Paper
Money was a new and independent standard, just like gold itself;
but which he fondly dreamed could circulate independently at the
same Value as gold. Hence, Turgot's remark has no application to
the question.
On the Self-Contradiction of J. B. Say on the subject of Credit
i. J. B. Say, following up the erroneous notion of Turgot on the
nature of Credit, invented the phrase which so many unthinking
writers have echoed from that day to this — that those who consider
Credit to be Capital maintain that the same thing can be in two places
at once! I
We shall show that all this confusion has arisen from Say never
having thought out carefully the fundamental concepts of Economics:
and from his self-contradiction on almost every one of them. Say's
name formerly stood so high in the subject, and his sneers have been
chorussed by such a multitude of writers in France and England,
and the matter itself is of such transcendent importance, that we are
compelled to give some space to a thorough investigation of his
views. We must, therefore, inquire into his notions of Wealthy
Value, Capital, and Credit.
On Say's Definition of Wealth.
2. It is very commonly supposed that Say was the first Economist
to introduce immaterial products into Economics. This however we
have shown is a great error, because the author of the Eryxias
proved more than 2,200 years ago that immaterial Quantities are
Wealth. Smith expressly enumerates "the acquired and useful
abilities of the inhabitants" as part of the Fixed Capital of the
nation. The Roman Jurists were the first to declare that Abstract
Rights and Rights of Action are Wealth : in which they have been
followed by all the Jurists in the world. Smith expressly includes
Paper Credit under the term Circulating Capital : thus recognising
the existence of three species of Wealth : exactly as the ancients had
done. Say does exactly the same: and also enumerates several
other kinds of Incorporeal Wealth.
Say defines Wealth thus (Cours, pt. i ch. .1) — "The exclusive
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C] Credit 353
possession which, in the midst of a numerous society, clearly
distinguishes the property of each person, causes this sort of thing
to be the only one to which in common language the name of
Wealth is given [not, as the Economists held, unless it is Exchange-
able] From this circumstance not only these things which
are capable of satisfying directly the wants of man such as nature
and society have made him, but the things which can only satisfy
them indirectly, such as Money, Instruments of Credit (Titres
de Crtance), the Funds, &c.
Again, after speaking of things of Value, such as the earth, metals,
money, coin, stuffs, &c, he says (Traitt, bk. L, ch. 1.) — " If one
gives also the name of Wealth to the Funds, Commercial Paper
(Effets de Commerce), it is clear," &c.
Again he says (Cours, pt i. ch. 1.) — "You see that Wealth does
not depend on the kind of things, nor upon their physical nature,
but on a Moral Quality, which each one calls their Value.
Value alone transforms a thing into Wealth, in the sense in which
this word is synonymous with biens or property. The Wealth which
resides in anything, whether it be land, a horse, or a Bill of
Exchange, is proportional to its Value. When we speak of things
being Wealth, we do not speak of other qualities which they can
have : we speak only of their Value."
Thus we have shown conclusively that Say admits that the
principle of Wealth resides exclusively in Exchangeability : in
accordance with the unanimous doctrine of ancient writers for 1,300
years : and he expressly enumerates Titres de Cr'eance and Effets de
Commerce, that is Negotiable Paper, or Credit, as Wealth.
On Sa^s Definition of Value.
3. We shall find exactly the same inconsistencies in Say's notions
of Value as have been the ruin of so much modern Economics. He
over and over again says that Value is something External to an
object, for which it can be exchanged: and then he repeatedly
speaks of Intrinsic Value: without the least idea that these are
contradictory conceptions.
To show this we can only cite a few passages out of many. Thus,
he says (Cours, pt. i. ch. 1.) — " The second circumstance to
be remarked relating to the Value of things is the impossibility
to appreciate its absolute magnitude. It is never anything but
comparative. When I say that a house which I point out is worth
fifty thousand francs, I affirm nothing but that the Value of this
2 A
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354 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
house is equal to the sum of fifty thousand francs : but what is the
Value of this sum ? It is not a Value existing by itself, and without
a comparison. The Value of a franc, of fifty thousand francs, is
composed of all the things which one can buy for these different
sums. If one can, in giving them in exchange, have a greater
quantity of corn, sugar, &c, they have a greater Value relatively to
these other things : if one can have less, they have less Value :
because the Value of a sum of money, like all other Values, is
measured by the quantity of things which one can get in exchange.
"The idea of Value resembles the idea of distance. We cannot
speak of the distance of an object without making mention of
another object from which the first finds itself at a certain distance.
In the same way the idea of the Value of an object always supposes a
relation with the Value of something else." That is to say, it
is manifestly just as absurd to speak of Intrinsic Distance as of
Intrinsic Value.
Again he says in the same chapter — " These same principles show
that gold, silver, and money are not sought for themselves, and are
only of the Value of what they can buy."
We need not overload our pages with more quotations. These
are sufficient to show that Say fully admits that the Value of a
thing is what it will exchange for, or purchase \ if it will exchange
for, or purchase, more, it has greater Value ; if it will exchange for,
or purchase, less, it has less Value ; and if it will exchange for
nothing it has no Value.
Moreover, Say repeatedly acknowledges that Value is a Quality of
the Mind ; and that it is the Mind of man only which confers Value.
Thus he says (Cours, Considerations Ginerales)—" Nevertheless,
value is purely a Moral Quality ; and which appears to depend
upon the fugitive and changeable will of men."
So also — " In order that a Value may be Wealth, this Value must
be recognised not by the possessor only, but by every other person."
Here Say admits that Value does not depend upon a single mind,
but upon more than one. He goes too far in saying that it must be
recognised by every one else. Two minds are necessary and
sufficient to constitute Value.
So also he says (Traiti, p. 57.) "The Value which men give to
things ... It is always true that if men attach Value to a thing."
Now we have shown in these passages, and we might have cited
multitudes of others, if it had been necessary, that Say clearly admits
that Value is not an absolute Quality of a thing ; that it is external
to itself ; that the Value of a thing is anything else for which it can
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be exchanged, or which it will purchase ; that Value originates in
the Mind of man.
Now after these admissions, what can be more contradictory, or
absurd, than for Say repeatedly to speak of Intrinsic Value ?
On Say's Definition of Capital.
4. We have now to lay before our readers the extraordinary self-
contradictions of Say on Capital.
Say asserts that Immaterial and Incorporeal Quantities
form No part of National Wealth.
He says (Cours, pt L ch. 10.) — "The nature of Capitals and the
nature of their functions show us very important truths. One
of them is, that Productive Capitals do not consist in fictitious and
conventional values (?) but only in real and intrinsic (!) values,
which their possessors judge convenient to devote to production.
In fact, one cannot buy productive services except with material
objects having an intrinsic (!) value. [What! not with Credit?]
We cannot amass as Capital, and transmit to another person
anything but value incorporated in material objects." [What
amazing nonsense. Cannot we acquire property in the Funds or in
Shares of great mercantile companies as Capital, and transmit them
to our descendants ; or sell them in the market ? Are not Credits
or Debts sold by scores of millions every day ?]
Again (Traitt, bk. i. ch. 13.) — "From the nature of immaterial
products, it follows that we cannot accumulate them, and that they
do not serve to augment the national Capital. [Cannot a man
accumulate professional knowledge and make a large income
thereby? and cannot he transmit this accumulated knowledge to
pupils ?] A nation in which there is found a crowd of musicians, of
priests, of employe's, may be a nation very much amused, well
taught, and admirably well administered ; but that is all. Its capital
does not receive from the labours of these working men any direct
increase, because their products are consumed immediately they are
created."
Again (definitions at the end of the Traitk) — " All transmissible
Capital is composed of Material Products, for nothing can pass
from hand to hand but visible matter." Perhaps some things
cannot pass from hand to hand: but they can pass from person
to person.
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356 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Say maintains that Immaterial and Incorporeal Capital is
part of the National Wealth.
He says (Cours, Considerations GhUrales) — "Since it has been
proved that Immaterial Property, that talents, and acquired personal
qualities form an integral portion of social Wealth."
Again he says (Cours, pt iv. ch. 5) — "We must include among
Capitals many biens which have a Value, although they are not
material. The Practice of a lawyer, or a notary: the Goodwill
of a shop : the Reputation of a sign : the Title of a periodical
work : are incontestably Wealth : we may sell them and buy them :
and make them the subject of a contract : and they are Capitals :
because they are the fruits of accumulated labour. A lawyer, by
the wisdom of his advice, by his assiduity, and other qualities, has
made the public conceive a good opinion of his chambers : this
good opinion gives him the right to larger fees : this increase of
profit is the revenue of a Capital called reputation: and this
Capital is the fruit of the labour and care which the lawyer has
taken during many years."
He also says in a note — "There are Capitals which are not
incorporated in material things, as the practice of a notary, or
a commercial enterprise: but this portion of Capital is a very
real Value."
Again — "The only immaterial Capitals which I know of are
the Practice: the Goodwill of a shop: a Profession: of a news-
paper : one can alienate, one can sell, a Capital of this species."
We may add that Trade Secrets are a very valuable and important
species of immaterial Capital
So again (Cours, Considerations Gkntrales) — "Without a classifi-
cation of things possessed embraces them all in making a valua-
tion of the Wealth of a nation, we are never certain of making
them complete.
" Our property comprising our Wealth, whatever it is, comprises
our Natural Qualities, as well as our social riches."
And after going through several descriptions of personal talents*
he says — " What I have said is sufficient, I think, to convince you
that Industrial faculties are Property of the same kind as all
others: and it is only in regarding them as equal to all others
that we obtain all the social advantages attached to the Right
of Property. For the same reason this kind of Property, although
it is difficult to be expressed in figures, forms, nevertheless, part
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of the general Wealth of a nation. A nation where industrial
capacities are more numerous and more eminent than elsewhere
is a more wealthy nation."
Is it possible to exhibit a more melancholy picture of self-contra-
dictions in a scientific (?) work ?
Say admits that Instruments of Credit are Capital.
5. We shall now show that Say explicitly declares that Credit
is Capital.
He says (Cours, pt. iv. p. 131) — "This is why from the moment
that this Value resides in objects employed in a productive opera-
tion, I name it Capital, whatever be the objects in which it
resides."
Again (Cours, pt. i. ch. 5) — "These Capital Values may consist
of the Public Funds, Commercial Paper, coffee-berries, or any other
merchandise which will sell."
Again (Cours, pt. i., p. 135)— "The form under which Capital
Value presents itself makes no difference." He then enters into
the subject more minutely (TraitS, bk. i. ch. 30) — "A Bill on
demand, or a Bill of Exchange, are obligations contracted to pay,
or cause to be paid, a sum either at another time or at another
place."
"The Right attached to this order (although its Value is not
demandable at the time, or the place, where one is) give it
nevertheless, a Present Value, more or less great. Thus a Bill
for 100 francs, payable at Paris in two months, may be negotiated
or sold for the price of 99 francs : a Bill for a similar sum, pay-
able at Marseilles at the same time, will be worth, at Paris, perhaps
98 francs."
" Hence, a Bill of Exchange, by virtue of its future value, has a
Present Value : it can be employed instead of Money in every
species of purchase, so that the greater part of the great commercial
transactions are effected by. Bills of Exchange."
Again he says (Cours, pt. iii. div. 3, ch. 27) — "There is,
nevertheless, an important observation to make relating to the
representative signs of Money. It is that they are capable of
rendering a service exactly similar to the Money they represent.
If anyone signs an obligation by which he binds himself to deliver,
at a fixed period, a cloak, made in such a fashion, this promise,
although it is in some sort a sign, or pledge, of the possession of
the cloak, cannot take its place : because a sheet of paper does not
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358 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
protect from cold, like a cloak: while the signs which represent
Money, can replace it completely, and render all the services it
can. In fact, the qualities which make a bag of Money serve us
in exchanges can be found in a Bill. These qualities, you will
remember, are —
" First, in the Value it has. One can give a Bill exactly the same
Value as to a sum of Money: in giving the bearer the right to
receive the sum, so as to take away from him all doubt as to the
payment, it is that a Bank Note can circulate ten years in preserving
a value of a thousand francs without being paid, only because one
believes that he can have the amount when he pleases."
We have thus laid before our readers the explicit admission of
Say that an Instrument of Credit may be of the Value of Money,
and perform all the functions of Money.
He further says (Cours, pt iii. ch. 18) — "Every private person
can sign an ordinary Bill, and give it in payment of merchandise,
provided that the seller consents to receive it as if it were Money.
This seller, in his turn, if he is the buyer of other merchandise, can
give the same Bill in payment The second acquirer can pass it
to a third with the same object There is an Obligation which
circulates : it serves him who wishes to buy : it fills the office of a
sum of Money.
" The Value of a Sign depends on the Value of the thing signi-
fied : but, in order that this value may be exactly as great as that of
the thing of which it is the pledge, the payment of the Bill must not
only be certain, but demandable on the instant
"If Bills of Credit could replace completely metallic Money, it
is evident that a Bank of circulation veritably augments the sum of
National Wealth : because, in this case, the metallic Wealth becom-
ing superfluous as an agent of circulation, and, nevertheless, pre-
serving its own value, becomes disposable, and can serve other
purposes. But how does this substitution taKe place? What are
its limits? What classes of society make their profit of the New
Funds added to the Capital of the nation 9
" According as a Bank issues its Notes, and the public consent to
receive them on the same footing as metallic Money, the number of
monetary units increases
"We must not, however, think that the Value withdrawn from
the sum of Money, and added to the sum of Capital merchandise,
equals the sum of Notes issued. These only represent Money when
they can always be paid on demand: and for that the bank is
obliged to keep in its coffers, and, consequently, to withdraw from
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circulation, a certain sum of Money. If, suppose, it issues 100
millions of Notes, it will withdraw, perhaps, 40 millions in specie,
which it will put in reserve to meet the payments which may be
demanded of it Therefore, if it adds to the quantity of Money
in circulation 100 millions, and, if it withdraws 40 millions from
circulation, it is as if it added only 60.
We now wish to learn what class of Society enjoys the use ot
this New Capital."
Say goes on to explain how this New Capital is employed, and
who reaps the profit on it.
Now we have shown our readers by the most unimpeachable
evidence, that is by extracts from himself, that Say maintains that
Credit is Capital : and yet perhaps they will be surprised to hear
that Say is the writer who originated the sneer that those who say
that Credit may be used as Capital maintain that the same thing
may be in two places at once !
Say maintains that those who say that Credit is Capital affirm that
the Same Thing may be in Two Places at once,
6. We shall now place before our readers the passages in which
Say maintains that those who say that Credit may be used as Capital
are such puzzle-headed dolts as to affirm that the same thing may be
in two places at once.
Hs says (TraitS, book ii. ch. 8) — " It is sometimes thought that
Credit multiplies Capital. This error, which is found frequently
reproduced in a crowd of works, of which some are written
professedly on Political Economy . [Say's own work, for example]
supposes an absolute ignorance of the nature and functions of
Capitals. [Say, then, himself has shown this ignorance]. A Capital
is always a very real Value fixed in a matter : [Say has himself given
several examples of Capital which are not fixed in a matter] because
immaterial products are not susceptible of accumulation: [Say
himself has given several examples to the contrary] and a material
product cannot be in two places at once, and serve two persons at the
same time. [Who said it could ?] The constructions, the machines,
the provisions, the merchandise, which comprise my Capital may be
the amount of the Values I have borrowed : in this case I carry on
my industry with a Capital which does not belong to me (!), and
which I hire (!): but certainly the Capital which I employ is not
employed by another. He who lends it to me is debarred from the
power of working it elsewhere. A hundred persons can merit the
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360 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
same confidence as I : but this Credit, this confidence merited, does
not multiply the sum of disposable Capitals: it only causes less
Capital to be kept without use."
He also says (Cours, pt i. ch. 9) — "The manufacturer who buys
on Credit raw materials^ borrows from the seller the value of this
merchandise for the time of the Credit which he gives him : and this
Value which he lends him is furnished in merchandise, which are
material values (! !)
"Hence, if one can only borrow and lend Capital in material
objects, what becomes of the maxim that Credit multiplies Capitals?
My Credit can cause me to dispose of a material value which a
capitalist has placed in reserve : but if he lends it to me, he remains
deprived of it : he cannot lend it to another person at the same
time : the manufacturer who uses this value, who consumes it, to
accomplish a productive operation, prevents another manufacturer
employing it as his own."
The reader has only to compare these extracts drawn from Say
himself to be amazed at their contradictions.
In the first set Say himself admits that Instruments of Credit are
Wealth : and he admits that if a Bank can maintain in circulation a
greater amount of Notes than it keeps gold in reserve, it augments
by so much the Capital of the country.
In the second set he considers the Credit to be the Material
goods lent : and then he asks with a triumphant sneer, how can
the same material goods be in two places at once ! !
We need not say a word more.
On the Self-contradiction of Mill on Credit
4, 1. Turgot was the writer who, as we have shown above,
started the erroneous notion that Credit is the Transfer of some-
thing.
J. B. Say further extended the error by supposing that Credit is
the Goods which are "lent": and then he ridiculed the doctrine
that "Credit is Capital" by sneeringly remarking that the same
thing cannot be in two places at once !
These two sentences have been repeated by a multitude of
unthinking writers in France and England from that day to this.
The number of writers who have reiterated these absurdities is so
great that we have no room to notice them : especially as we have
shown the misconceptions and self-contradictions of Turgot and Say,
who originated these errors.
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J. S. Mill, as is well known, has repeated this silly sneer, and
we have now to examine whether Mill is any more consistent
with himself than Say
Mill admits that Personal Credit is Wealth.
2. We have first to show that Mill admits that Personal Credit
is Wealth.
In accordance with the unanimous doctrine of ancient writers
for 850 years, Mill says {Preliminary Remarks, p. 4) —
"Everything, therefore, forms part of Wealth which has
Purchasing Power."
Then he says (book iii. ch. n, § 3) —
"For Credit, though it is not ' Productive' Power, is
Purchasing Power. . . .
"The Credit which we are now called upon to consider as a
Purchasing Power."
Again (book iii. ch. 1 2, § 2) —
" The amount of Purchasing Power which a person can exercise
is composed of all the Money in his possession and due to him
[*'.;., of all the Bank Notes, Bank Credits, Bills of Exchange, &c,
belonging to him] : and of all his Credit"
So (book iii. ch. 12, § 3) — "The inclination of the mercantile
public to increase their demand for commodities by making use of
all or much of their Credit as Purchasing Power."
And (book iii. ch. 11) — "Credit in short has exactly the same
Purchasing Power as Money."
Now if Mill gives as a definition —
" Everything which has Purchasing Power is Wealth."
And if he says that —
" Personal Credit is Purchasing Power."
Then the necessary inference is that —
" Personal Credit is Wealth."
That is a Syllogism from which there is no escape.
Mill admits that Credit is an Independent and Transferable
Quantity.
3. The heading of one of Mill's chapters (book iii. ch. 1 1, § 3) is
— "Of Credit as a Substitute for Money." Now if one quantity
can be a substitute for another, it must be of the same general
nature. If a person wants wine and cannot get it, he may put up
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362 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. 11.
with small beer as a substitute : but a pair of shoes could never be
a substitute for a glass of champagne.
Now if Credit can be a substitute for Money, Credit must be of
the same general nature as Money. But Money is an Independent
Exchangeable Quantity : therefore Credit must also be an Indepen-
dent Exchangeable Quantity.
Accordingly Mill speaks of (book iii. ch. 12, § 5) — "Credit
Transferable from hand to hand."
He also says (book iii. ch. 12, § 1) — "But we have now found
that there are other things, such as Bank Notes, Bills of Exchange,
and Cheques [which Mill admits are Credit] which circulate as
Money : and perform all the functions of it."
Hence we see that Mill admits that Personal Credit is an
Independent Quantity: and circulates exactly like Money: and
produces all the effects of Money.
Mill admits that Rights are Wealth.
4. Having shown' that Mill admits that Personal Credit is
Wealth: we have now to show that he admits that Rights are
Wealth.
He says (book iii. ch. 12, § 3) — "An Order or Note of hand or
Bill of Exchange [which are Credit] payable at sight for an ounce of
gold, while the Credit of the giver is unimpaired, is worth neither
more nor less than the gold itself."
That is as the Italian proverb says — "Che oro vale, oro e" —
" That which is of the Value of Go/d, is Gold:'
That is, Mill admits that an abstract Right, whether recorded on
paper or not, which is sure of being paid in gold, is of exactly the
same Value as gold : which is self-evident, because the Gold is the
Value of the Promise.
These rights include Banking Credits, Bank Notes, Cheques,
Bills of Exchange; Exchequer Bills; Navy Bills; Dividend
Warrants: Book Debts of traders; and private and personal
Debts.
Now, these Rights are all included under the Title of Credit.
Hence Mill admits that Credit in all its forms, which is sure of
being paid in gold, is of exactly the same Value as Gold; and,
therefore, is Wealth equally with Gold.
All these Rights, or Credit, are payable in a definite sum in
Gold ; and, therefore, they have a fixed Value in Gold.
Mill also (book iii. ch. 12, § 5) speaks of Credit in the
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forms of Bank Notes; Cheques; Promissory Notes; Bills of
Exchange, &c.
Now all these Instruments are Rights to a Future Payment:
therefore Mill admits that a Credit is the Present Right to a
Future Payment
Mill admits that Credit may be used as Capital.
5. We have shown that Mill admits that Credit circulates as
Money, and performs all the functions of it.
Now one of the functions of Money is to be used as Capital :
and, therefore, if Credit performs all the functions of Money,
Credit may be used as Capital as well as Money.
Further on (book ill. ch. 22, § 2) he is still more explicit —
"The Value saved to the community by thus dispensing with
metallic Money is a clear gain to those who provide the substitute.
They have the use of 20,000,000 of Circulating Medium, which
have cost them only an engraver's plate. If they employ this
accession to their fortunes as Productive Capital [Mill, as we have
seen, denies that Credit is Productive J, the produce of the country
is increased, and the community benefited as much as by any other
Capital of equal amount. . . . When Paper Currency is supplied,
as in our own country, by Bankers and Banking Companies, the
amount is almost wholly turned into Productive Capital. ... A
Banker's profession being that of a money lender, his issue of
Notes is a simple extension of his ordinary occupation. [We shall
show hereafter that all this is a gross delusion.] He lends the
amount to farmers, manufacturers, or dealers, who employ it in
their several businesses. So employed, it yields, like any other
Capital, wages of labour, and profits of stock. . . . The Capital
itself, in the long run, becomes entirely wages, and when replaced
by the sale of the produce, becomes wages again ; thus affording a
perpetual fund of the value of 20,000,000 for the maintenance of
Productive Labour."
And he also says (book iii. ch. 11, § 1, note) — "Now an effect
of this latter character naturally attends some extensions of Credit,
especially when taking place in the form of Bank Notes, or other
instruments of exchange. The additional Bank Notes are in
ordinary course first issued to producers or dealers to be employed
as Capital . . . and there is a real increase of Capital."
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364 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Mill admits that Credit may be used as Productive Capital.
6. Now, if Mill admits that anything which has Purchasing
Power is Wealth.
And if he says that Credit is Purchasing Power.
And if he admits that Bank Notes, Cheques, Bills of Exchange,
&c, Circulate as Money, and perform all the functions of Money.
And if he admits that Bank Notes, &c, may be used as
Productive Capital.
Then Credit may be used as Productive Capital.
This is a Sorites from which there is no escape.
Mill denies that Credit is Productive Power.
7. And yet the very same Mill says (book iii. ch. 1 1, § 3) —
" For Credit, though it is Not Productive Power, is Purchasing
Power."
" It is Not a Productive Power in itself."
"Although, therefore, the Productive Funds of the country are
Not increased by Credit."
And several other passages to the same effect.
Mill sneers at those who say that Credit is Capital.
8. Having thus shown that Mill admits that Credit is an Indepen-
dent Quantity — that it is the Present Right to a Future Payment —
that it is embodied in the form of Bank Notes, Cheques, Bills
of Exchange, &c. — that they are Transferable from hand to hand —
that they Circulate like Money, and perform all the functions of
Money — and that they may be used as Productive Capital — it may
surprise some readers who are not used to Mill, to hear that Mill not
only denies that Credit is Capital, but sneers at the imbecility
of those who say that it may be so used.
In the chapter headed — " Of Credit as a substitute for Money,"
he says (book iii. ch. ci, § 1) — "The functions of Credit have
been a subject of as much misunderstanding and as much confusion
of ideas as any single topic in Political Economy
"As a specimen of the confused notions entertained respecting
the nature of Credit, we may advert to the exaggerated language so
often used respecting its national importance. [By whom ?] Credit
has a great, but not, as so many people seem to suppose, a magical
power — [Who said it has?]— it cannot make something out of
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C] Credit 365
nothing. [Yes, it can.] How often is an extension of Credit talked
of as equivalent to a creation of Capital, or as if Credit actually were
Capital? [Why! who has said more distinctly than Mill himself
that Credit may be used as Capital; and that Credit is Capital?
The very object of the preceding extracts is to show that Credit may
be used as Capital, exactly in the same way that Money is.] It
seems strange that there should be any need to point out that
Credit, being only the permission to use the Capital of another person,
the means of production cannot be increased by it, but only
Transferred. [Mill admits that Bank Notes, &c, are Credit; are
Bank Notes, &c, the permission to use the Capital of another
person?] If the borrower's means of production and employment
of labour are increased by the Credit given him, the lender's are as
much diminished. [Nonsense; in every operation on Credit the
lender, i.e. the seller of the goods, receives as the price of them a
Bill of Exchange which he can either use for further purchases,
or discount with his banker, and so get ready money for it. The
same sum cannot be used as Capital both by the owner and also by
the person to whom it is lent. [Who said it could ?] It is true that
the Capital which A has borrowed from B, and makes use of in his
business, still forms part of the Wealth of B [Nonsense ; he has sold
it to A and got a Bill in exchange for it] for other purposes, he can
enter into arrangements in reliance on it, and can borrow when
needful an equivalent sum on the security of it; so that to a
superficial eye it might seem as if both B and A had the use of it at
once. [Only to the superficial eye of a logician.] But the smallest
consideration will show that when B has parted with his Capital to
A, the use of the Capital rests with A alone, and that B has no other
service from it than in so far as his ultimate claim upon it serves him
to obtain the use of another Capital from a third person C. All
Capital (not his own) of which any person has really the use, is, and
must be, so much subtracted from the Capital of someone else. . . .
"But though Credit is but a Transfer of Capital from hand to
hand."
And several other passages to the same effect
Confusion of Mill on Credit
9. The reader cannot fail to see the astounding confusion of
Mill's ideas on Credit in the preceding extracts.
In the first set he says that Credit is the Right to a future
payment — that it is an Independent Quantity which is bought and
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366 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
sold, and transferred from hand to hand like Money — and may be
used as Capital like Money.
In the second set he makes Credit to be the Transfer of Capital:
or an Operation.
That is, Mill cannot perceive the difference between an Indepen-
dent Quantity and an Operation ! !
Now we ask — Is a Bank Note the Transfer of a commodity? Is
a Guinea the Sale of a book ? Is a Table the Transfer of a chair?
Is a piece of Independent Property of any sort the Transfer of
anything else? Is an Independent Quantity of any sort an
Operation ?
Mill says that Credit is the Transfer of Capital: and then he
speaks of Credit Transferable from hand to hand !
Now, how is it possible to Transfer the Transfer of Capital? To
Transfer Capital is an Operation : also when Credit is transferred
from hand to hand it is an Operation. But how is it possible to
Operate upon an Operation ?
Mill informs us that Credit cannot make something out of
Nothing. Who said it could? Can a guinea make something out
of Nothing?
It is not Credit which makes something out of nothing — but the
Credit itself— the Right of Action — the Present Right to the future
payment — which Mill admits to be of the Value of the Gold
promised — which is created out of nothing by the mutual consent
of the parties to the contract — which Right by the reiterated
admission of Say and Mill is capable of circulating like Money,
and performing all the functions of Money : and, therefore, it may
be used as Capital exactly like Money.
Money is used as Capital by being exchanged away for other
things, goods, or labour ; or by circulating other things : and Credit
may be used to circulate goods, or labour, precisely in the same
way.
Moreover, we see how completely Mill is in error when he says
that Credit is never anything else than the transfer of Capital
Credit is used to an enormous extent to purchase Labour: just
as Money is: and Credit is also used to an enormous extent to
purchase other Credits : as will be shown more fully when we come
to exhibit the mechanism of Banking.
After this exposition our readers will perhaps think that Mill is
not exactly the person to sneer at others for their confused
notions about Credit ; though his own work is a striking example of
the misunderstanding and confusion which he says prevail upon the
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,C] Credit 367
subject And many may perhaps wonder at a logician who is
unable to perceive the difference between an Independent
Quantity and an Operation.
After this melancholy exposure of 'Mill — and this brick is in
reality a specimen of the whole house — who is, or was till lately, the
logical Pope of the British people, a good many persons will think
that there is considerable truth in Carlyle's caustic remark that
professed writers on logic are the most illogical of writers.
Contrast between the Idola, or False Conoepts, of Credit
and Debt, and the True Ones. -
5. There is no method so effective for exterminating False Concepts,
or Idola, of things as to bring them into sharp and close contrast
with the true ones. We shall, therefore, place in array for summary
execution after the manner of the Chinese, the False Notions, or
Idola, of Debt and Credit, which have so bewildered and misled
ill-informed writers.
The reader must therefore observe that —
A Debt is Not Money owed by the Debtor.
A Debt is Not a subtraction from the Property of the Debtor.
A Debt is Not Money in the possession of the Debtor, to which
the Creditor has a right.
A Debt is the Abstract Personal Duty of the Debtor to Pay or
Do something.
A Credit is Not the thing lent
A Credit is Not the Transfer of anything.
A Credit is Not a Title to any specific Money or Goods.
In popular language, Credit is the personal reputation which a
person enjoys, in consequence of which he can buy Money, or
Goods, or Labour, by giving in exchange for them a Promise to pay
at a future time.
But " A Credit " in Law, Commerce, and Economics, is the
Right of Action which one Person, the Creditor, has to compel
another Person, the Debtor, to Pay or Do something.
And this Right of Action is termed perfectly indifferently both in
Law and common usage, a Credit or a Debt
And the word Debt is used perfectly indifferent to mean the
Creditor's Right of Action, and the Debtor's Duty to Pay.
And the Creditor can sell this Right of Action to any one he
pleases. And it has Value because it will be paid, or exchanged,
for the thing promised, at the fixed time.
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368 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. IL
It is, therefore, Merchandise, or a vendible Commodity : and it
has Value for exactly the same reason that anything else has Value.
And because these Credits, Debts, or Rights of Action, can be
bought and sold or exchanged like any material chattels, and in
fact they form the most colossal branch of commerce at the present
day : they are termed Pecunia> Bona, Res> Merx, in Roman Law :
Xprjixara, irpdyfLara, ofieos, ayaOd, owria, ovcia a^av^s, in Greek
Law: Goods, Chattels, Commodities, Merchandise, Incorporeal
Wealth, in English Law : and Wealth and Capital in Economics.
Sir Charles Lyell says that when a strange proposition is published
to the world, it screams out that it is false : then that those who
maintain it are Atheists : and then, lastly, that every one knew it
already.
When nearly forty years ago, we said in a former work that Credit
is Capital, which doctrine we first learned from Adam Smith, and
to which, from our knowledge of the Banking system of Scotland,
we gave a most hearty assent, there was a shout of scorn and
derision from many writers in England and France: Whately
thought it necessary to enter into a long argument to prove to the
Dons at Oxford, that an Economist is not necessarily an Atheist :
and now we have clearly shown that every one knew already that
Credit may be used as Capital.
CURRENCY PRINCIPLE.
We must now explain the meaning of this term, which has
acquired much importance, because it has been asserted by influ-
ential writers that it is the only true principle of issuing Bank-notes,
and the Bank Act of 1844 professes to be founded on it.
The express function of a Bank being to issue Credit, it has been
maintained by certain influential persons that a Bank should only
be permitted to issue as much Credit as the specie paid in, and no
more ; and that its sole function should be to exchange Credit for
Money and Money for Credit, and thus the quantity of Credit
in circulation would always be exactly equal to the Money
displaced.
This is the doctrine distinctively known by the name of the
"Currency Principle." It is the doctrine which the supporters
of the Bank Act of 1844 asserted to be the only true one, and
which that Bank Act was especially designed to carry out
This doctrine is supposed to be of modern origin, and the latest
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C] Currency Principle
refinement in the Theory of Banking. But this is far from being
the case ; it was first formulated in China in 1309.
That country had been plagued for 500 years with the excessive
issues of inconvertible paper by the Banks, which gave rise to
immense public confusion and distress. In 1309 the author of a
work named Tsao-min, recounting the disasters caused to China by
this paper money, recalls the excellent effects which a former proper
paper issue produced. " Then," says he, " it was ordered that the
offices of the rich merchants who managed the enterprise, when the
Notes were paid in the Money came out, and when the Bills came
out the Money went in. The Money was the mother, the Note was
the son ; the son and the mother were reciprocally exchanged for
each other."
Several Banks have been constructed on this principle, such as
those of Venice, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Nuremberg, and others.
These places, small in themselves, were the centres of a great
foreign commerce ; and, as a necessary consequence, large quantities
of foreign coin of all sorts of different countries and denominations
were brought by the foreigners who resorted to them. These coins
were, moreover, greatly clipped, worn, degraded, and diminished.
The degraded state of the current coin produced intolerable incon-
venience, disorder, and confusion among merchants, who, when
they paid, or received payment of, their bills, had to offer or receive
a bagful of all sorts of different coins. The settlement of these
bills, therefore, involved perpetual disputes — which coins were to be
received and which not, and how much each was to count for.
In order to remedy this intolerable inconvenience, it became
necessary to institute some fixed and uniform standard of payment,
so as to insure regularity of payments and a just discharge of
debts.
To effect this purpose, the magistrates of these cities instituted a
Bank of Deposit, into which every merchant paid his coins of all
sorts and countries. They were weighed, and the Bank gave him
Credit in its books for the exact bullion value of the coins paid in.
The owner of the Credit was entitled to have it paid full weighted
coin on demand.
These Credits therefore insured a uniform standard of payment,
and were called Bank Money — Moneta di Banco — and it was enacted
that all bills on these cities, above a certain small amount, should be
paid in Bank Money only.
As this Bank Money was always exchangeable for coin of full
weight on demand, it was always at a premium, or agio, as
2 B
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370 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
compared with the clipped, worn, and degraded coin in circulation.
The difference was usually from 5 to 9 per cent in the different
cities. The term agio is misleading, because it is evident that it was
the Moneta di Banco which was the real legal standard, and the
current coin was at a discount.
These Banks professed to keep all the Coin and Bullion deposited
with them in their vaults. They made no use of it in the way of
business, as by discounting bills. Thus the Credit created was
exactly equal to the specie deposited, and their sole purpose was to
exchange Credit for Money and Money for Credit
These Banks were examples of the Currency Principle. They
were of no use to commerce further than to insure a uniform
standard for the payment of debts. They made no profits by their
business ; and no bank constructed on the Currency Principle can, by
any possibility^ make profits. The merchants who kept their accounts
with the Bank paid certain fees to defray the expenses of the
establishment.
These Banks were Banks of Deposit, because the Money and
Bullion placed with them were merely placed with them for safe
custody and keeping. But they were not Banks in the true modern
sense of the word, because the money deposited with them did not
become their absolute property, to deal with as they pleased. They
were simply trustees of the money, and they had no right whatever
to use it for their own profit. However, they were Banks in a
certain sense of the word, because the word Banco means a store, or
heap, and they were stores of money. In modern language they
would be called Treasuries. They were not the Bankers but the
Treasurers of the merchants, and they were obliged to take a solemn
oath that they would keep in their vaults all the Coin and Bullion
deposited with them. Nevertheless, both at Venice and Amsterdam
the magistrates violated their trusts and their solemn oaths, and
advanced large sums to the Government, which ultimately led to
their ruin.
DEBT (see also Credit).
On the Three Ambiguities in the Theory of Credit, or Debt
We have now to notice three perplexities, or Ambiguities, in
the Theory of Credit, or Debt, which have been the cause of
an immense amount of confusion and misconception, which the
reader must carefully observe.
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D.] Debt 371
First Ambiguity.--^ Debt is not the Money owed by the
Debtor, but the Abstract Personal Duty to pay the Money +
I. We have now to explain the meaning of the word Debt,
about which there is great misconception. It is one of the
examples of words, which, in early jurisprudence and classical
Latin, meant a Material Thing, but has come in the progress
of civilisation and jurisprudence to mean solely a Right and a
Duty.
We think it absolutely certain that in classical Latin the word
Debitum means the Material thing, whether Money or any other
which is due. And in this we are confirmed by the high authority
of Professor H. Nettleship, of Oxford.
The idea that the word Debt means the Money due is very
common at the present day, and has greatly impeded the due
apprehension of the nature of Credit.
Many literary and mathematical writers suppose that a Debt
is the Money due : or Money in the debtor's possession to which
the Creditor has a Right.
This very common error, of which we shall hereafter produce
several examples, is expressly provided for in the Digest.
It is said1 — " Obligationum substantia non in eo consistit ut
aliquod Corpus nostrum faciat : sed ut Alium nobis adstringit ad
Dandum aliquod, vel Faciendum, vel Prestandum."
" The essence of Obligations does not consist in this, that it makes
any specific Goods our property: but that it binds some Person
to Pay us something: or to Do something: or to Guarantee
something."
Pothier well says2 —
"The Right which the Obligation gives the Creditor of pro-
ceeding to obtain payment of the thing which the Debtor is obliged
to give him, is not a Right in the Thing itself (Jus in re) : it
is only a Right against the Person of the Debtor for the purpose
of compelling him to give it (Jus ad rem acquirendam\ The thing
which the Debtor is obliged to give continues to belong to
him: and the Creditor cannot become proprietor of it except
by the delivery, real or fictitious, which is made to him by the
Debtor in the performance of the Obligation.
"And till this delivery is made the Creditor has nothing more
than the Right of demanding the thing: and he has only that
1 Digest % 44, 7, 2. ■ TraM sur Us Obligations*
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372 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Right against the Person of the Debtor who has contracted the
Obligation.
" Hence it follows, that if my Debtor who has contracted the
Obligation to give a thing to me, transfers it upon a particular
title to a third person, whether by sale or donation, I cannot
demand it from the party who has so acquired it, but only from
my Debtor. The reason is, as the Obligation does not, according
to our principle, give the Creditor any Right in the thing which
is due to me, which I can pursue against the person in whose hands
it may be found. "
This doctrine is most true and most important. Suppose a
Creditor comes to his Debtor and demands payment of his Debt :
and the Debtor has the very Money wherewith to pay his Debt
in his hand : he may still, nevertheless, give it away, or spend it
under the very eyes of his Creditor : and the Creditor has no legal
right to prevent him.
So Gide says1 — "A Debt is not the Material object, the
Money : but the Juridical object, the Duty to Pay."
So Williams says2 — "Every person who borrows Money on
mortgage or not, incurs a Debt or Personal Obligation to repay
it out of whatever means he possesses."
The distinction is perfectly plain, and of the greatest importance
in Economics. If the Creditor has the Right to any specific
Money in the Debtor's possession, that would be a diminution
of the Debtor's property : he would have no right to spend, or part
with it: and there would be only one Economic Quantity in
existence— the Money.
But as a matter of fact, the whole of the Money remains the
Debtor's property, which he can sell, donate, or exchange as he
pleases. And also there is the Right, or Property, in the person of
the Creditor, which he can sell, or exchange, as he pleases : and
which may be sold, or exchanged, any number of times till it
is paid off and extinguished. Hence, in this case there are two
Economic Quantities in existence, which may each circulate in
commerce at the same time.
To consider a Debt as a sum of money in the Debtor's
possession to which the Creditor has a Right, is to confound
the distinction between a Trustee and a Debtor. A trustee
merely holds money which is in reality the property of the
Cestui que trust: it is in no sense whatever his property: he
1 De la Novation, p. 139. a Law of Personal Property ', p. 304.
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D.] Debt 373
has no right to use it for his own purposes: and, therefore,
there is only one, and not two, Economic Quantities in
existence.
If the Creditor's Right were the Right to a specific sum of
Money in the Debtor's possession, it would follow that a Debtor
could never be insolvent : because if he had no money, his Creditor
could have no Right. But, unfortunately, this is far from being
the case. In too many cases persons are insolvent: i.e., they are
under the Duty to pay Money, and have no money to pay it with ;
but the Creditor's Right to demand exists whether the Debtor
has any money to pay it with or not
If the Creditor's Right were the Right to a specific sum of
money, it would follow that the Quantity of Credit could never
exceed the Quantity of Money: but this is entirely contrary to
fact: every Jurist knows perfectly well that Credit is itself a
Marketable Commodity, a Merchandise, and the amount of it in
existence and circulation in this country is about ioo times the
Quantity of Money.
Hence the reader must carefully observe that a Debt is simply
the abstract Personal Duty to pay money, and has no reference
to any specific sum of Money.
Second Ambiguity,— The word Debt means both the Credi-
tor's Right of Action and the Debtor's Duty to Pay,
II. The second Ambiguity is this. It has been shown that the
word Debt means in the first instance the Debtor's Personal Duty
to pay money — and not the money which is due. But it has long
been used both in Law and common usage to mean the Creditor's
Right of action as well; and is thus used as synonymous with
Credit. And a Creditor's Right of action is termed perfectly
indiscriminately a Credit and a Debt.
As has been said above, the word Debitum in classical Latin
denotes the Material thing, whether Money, or any other, which
is owed. But in the Pandects the word Debitum is used as
synonymous with Obligatio: the Bond of Law, or Contract,
between the Creditor and the Debtor; and therefore it includes
both the Creditor's Right to Demand and the Debtors Duty to
Pay.
In classical Latin a Creditor's Right of action was termed
Nomen. But in course of time, while Obligatio always continued
to mean the Nexus, or Contract, between the two parties, the word
Debitum split up into two parts, and was used to mean both the
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374 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Creditor's Right of Action and the Debtor's Duty to Pay, quite
indiscriminately.
In the twelfth century the word Debitum was commonly used to
mean a Right of Action. In 1194, Richard I. issued instructions for
a judicial visitation on financial matters, in which it was ordered —
" Omnia Debita Judaeorum inbrevientur, terrae, domus, reditus,
et possessiones."
"Let all the Debts (i.e. Rights of Action) of the Jews be scheduled^
their lands, houses, rents, and possessions.
" Item quilibet Judaeus jurabit super rotulum quod omnia Debita
sua et vadia, et reditus, et omnes res et possessiones suas inbreviari
faciat"
"Also let every Jew swear that he will make a true return of all
his Debts (Rights of Action), pledges, rents, and all his property and
possessions.11
In mediaeval charters the word Debitale was used in the same
sense. Thus in one of 1324, it says —
"In omnibus et singulis bonis . . . dominiis, baroniis, censibus,
redditualibus, Debitalibus, servitutibus, homatgiis."
"In all and singular goods . . . lordships, baronies, revenues,
rents, Debts (Rights of Action), servitudes, homages19
In another, of 1374, it is said —
" Acquisiverunt reditus, census annuos, et Debitalia in fcedis
. . . quorum redditorum, censuum, et Debitalium."
" They have acquired rents, annual revenues, and Debts (Rights
of Action) in fee . . . of which rents, revenues, and Debts (Rights
of Action):'
A Statute of the City of Placentia, in 1386, clearly shows that
Debitum and Nomen were synonymous1 —
"Nullus homo Plac. emat vel aliqualiter acquirat aliquod
Debitum vel Nomen seu revisamentum contra Comm.
Placentiae."
Thus the words Debitum and Debitale were already at this period
used to mean Rights of Action, and as synonymous with Nomen, in
public instruments ; and if they were so used in public instruments,
it is clear that that must long have been their well-understood
meaning in common usage.
In English Law the word Debt has long been used to mean a
Right of Action. Thus in the Statute of Acton Burnell, 1 1 Edward
I. (1283), commonly called the Statute of Merchants, it is said —
" Pur ceo qe merchauntz qi avaunt ces houres unt preste lur aver
1 Papa d'Amico, Titolidi Credito, p. 89.
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D.] Debt 375
a diverse genz, sunt cheuz en poverte, pur ceo qe il ni aveit pas si
redde ley purvewe, par la quele il poeint lur Dettes hastivement
recoverir.
"Le Rei par luy par sun conseil ad ordine e establi, qe mar-
chaunt qi veut estre seur de sa Dette.
"E si le Meire ne troesse achatur face par renable pris liverer
les moebles al Creauzur, desqe a la summe de la Dette en
allowance de sa Dette."
By which it appears that at that time the word Debt had already
acquired in English law the meaning of a Right of Action : a
meaning which it has ever since retained, both in Law and common
usage.
So it is said in Les Termes de la Ley, first published in 1567 —
" Dett est un brief que gist lou ascun summe d'argent est due au
un par reason d'accompt."
" Debt is a Writ," &c.
So Ashe says —
" Quel Det, Duty, Chose-in-action, ou Droit"
So in the Act, 46 Geo. III. (1806), c. 125, s. 3, it is enacted that
one Debt, or Demand, may be set off against another.
So Williams says —
"Within the class of Choses-in-action was comprised a Right of
growing importance, namely, that of suing for Money due : which
Right is all that is called a Debt"
" We have seen that a Debt was anciently considered as a mere
Right to bring an action against the Debtor."
" When a Debt, or Demand, is equitable only."
" Debts being formerly considered mere Rights of Action."
So as may be seen in any daily paper the executors of
deceased persons advertise for any persons who have "Debts,
Claims, or Demands" against the estate to give in a statement
of them.
Ortolan says1 — " Sous le premier point de vue le droit personnel
se nomme chez nous Creance: chez les Romains Notnen moins
gen&alement Creditum."
Which Messrs. Prichard and Nasmyth translate —
" Under the first point of view a Personal Right is called by us a
Debt : among the Romans, Nomen, less usually Creditum."
In which they are right, because Crhance in French, is the Right
of Action which a Creditor has against a Debtor : which is, as we
have seen, the meaning of Debt in English Law.
1 GirUralisaiion du Droit Remain, pt. ii. ch. ii § 196.
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376 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
So Major-General Deane, the Commissioner of the Common-
wealth, agreed with the Marquis of Argyll that, if he would remain
quiet and not disturb the Government, he should "enjoy his
liberty, estate, lands, and Debts, and whatever duly belonged
to him."1
So John Bunyan, fearing arrest,2 made over to his wife "all
his goods, chattels, Debts, ready money, plate, rings, household
stuff, apparel, utensils, brass, pewter, bedding, and all his other
substance."
It is so perfectly well known that in English Law the word Debt
means both the Creditor's Right of Action and the Debtor's Duty to
pay, that it is used in both senses in the same Act of Parliament.
Thus, in the Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 36 and 37 Vict.
(1873), c. 66, s. 28, § 6, it is said —
"Any absolute assignment in writing under the hand of the
Assignor of any Debt or other legal Chose-in- Action."
Where the word Debt means the Creditor's Right of Action.
But in the same section, § 1, it is said — "Whose estate may
prove to be insufficient for the payment in full of his Debts and
Liabilities."
Where the word Debt means the Debtor's Duty to Pay.
An administrator is appointed by the Court of the "Goods,
Chattels, Credits " of the deceased.
Thus we see from all these passages that Creditum = Nomen
= Debitum : and that in Law the words " Credit " and " Debt "
are used synonymously to mean the Creditor's Right of Action.
It is exactly the same in common usage : a person makes his will,
bequeathing his Debts, i.c his Rights of Action.
So in the Law of Scotland, Debts are included under the title of
Movable Rights. And in a Scotch marriage contract it is usual for
the bride to transfer to her intended husband "all goods, gear,
Debts, sums of money, and other movable estate."
Accordingly in the Digest of the Law of Bills of Exchange
which we prepared for the Law Digest Commissioners we began
with this fundamental definition —
" Credit or Debt in Legal and Commercial [and Economical]
language, means a Right of Action against a Person for a sum
of Money."
We need not give any more examples. The reader must care-
fully observe that the word Debt is used, both in English Law and
common usage, quite indiscriminately to mean both the Creditor's
1 Burton's Hist, of Scot land % vol. vii. p. 48. 9 Froude's Bunyan, p. 87.
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D.] Debt 377
Right of Action and the Debtor's Duty to Pay: and it requires
constant vigilance to perceive in which sense it is used.
The word Duty also originally meant a Right : thus the King's
Duties meant his Right to levy customs. This meaning appears
in the extract from Ashe above cited : but it is seldom used in this
sense now.
The word Right had also this double meaning in English.
Thus Lord Shelbume said in the House of Lords — "He would
think that America had as good a Right to pay taxes as Britain,"
i.e. it was as much their Duty to do so.
The word Right is but seldom, if at all, now used in this sense
in England at the present day ; but it is quite common in Scotland
to say — "I have no Right to do that"; i.e. it is not my Duty
to do it
The word XP*°$ m Greek has also this double meaning: it
originally meant the actual thing owed, like Debitum in Latin, or
the Duty to pay it ; but the Greek jurists used XP*°9 t0 mean the
Right of Action.
Thus Demosthenes says —
"ttjv ova-lav airaxrav xpea KaTcAwrc" — He left all his Property in
outstanding Debts, i.e. Rights of Action?
In the Basilica, x/*os *s use(* as synonymous with Nomen,
Crkance, a Right of Action.
So in German the word Schuld properly means a Debt or
Liability: accordingly Schuldner properly means a Debtor: but
Austin says that Schuld has also the double meaning, and that in
German Law Schuldner is often used to mean the Creditor.
In French the words Droit and Dette are also used in the double
sense of the Right and the Duty : but in the Creditor's case it is
termed the Droit or Dette Active ; in the Debtor's case it is termed
the Droit or Dette Passive.
Thus Littr£ says —
" Dettes Actives : celles qu'on a le droit d'exiger le payement?
" Dettes Passives : celles qu'on est oblige de payer?
Crtance: Droit d'exiger l'accomplissement d'une obligation:
.... on oppose les droits de cr&nce au droits r&ls."
That is, Personal Rights, or Jura in personam, are distinguished
from Real Rights, or Jura in re.
Thus the student must carefully observe that all these words
which denote a Contract, or Obligation, between two persons,
such as xptos, Debitum, Debitale, Right, Debt, Duty, Droit, Dette,
Schuld, are used quite indiscriminately with respect to both parties ;
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378 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
and it requires constant vigilance to determine in which sense they
are used.
The explanation of this seeming confusion is this : \P*os comes
from xPli ^ is fit, or ordained : Debitum means that which is due :
Right, from rectum, that which is ordered : and if one person has
the Right to Demand, and another has the Duty to Pay, a sum
of money, it is equally fit, due, ordained, and right, that the one
person should receive, as that the other should pay; hence they
are equally \P*a> Debts, Duties, and Rights.
On the Continent it is usual to term a Person's Rights simply
his Actif and his Liabilities his Passif the words Droit or Dette
being understood: thus in the accounts of a bank its Liabilities
are termed its Passif and its assets, its Actif.
Third Ambiguity. — On the double Meaning of the words
"Lend," "Loan," "Borrow"; or the distinction between the
Mutuum, Sdvetov or 8dv€urfia: and the Commodatlim, or rb
Xprprdfievov.
III. The third Ambiguity has been the cause of immense mis-
conception in modern times on the subject of credit ; but as we
have given a full exposition of it under Lend and Loan, we need
not repeat it here.
On the Creation of Obligations.
Personal Credit, or Mercantile Character, is Purchasing Power:
and, as first pointed out by Demosthenes, and now universally
acknowledged, is Wealth. But Personal Credit does not enter into
Economics until the merchant actually exercises his Credit, and
makes a purchase with it.
When a merchant purchases goods " on Credit " it is an absolute
sale, just as much as if it had been effected with money. He
acquires the actual property in the goods as fully and effectually as
if he had paid for them in money. In exchange for the goods he
gives his Promise to pay their price at a future time. That is, he
creates a Right of Action against himself. This Right of Action is
a Credit, or Creance, or Debt, and is the Price of the goods, and
is the property of the seller.
Thus, at the very instant that the Property in the goods is trans-
ferred to the buyer, a Contract, or Obligation, is created between
the two parties, which consists of two parts —
i. The Right to Demand payment in the person of the seller,
or Creditor.
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D.] Debt 379
2. The Duty to Pay in the person of the buyer, or Debtor.
These two Quantities constitute the Contract, Obligation, or
Bond of Law between the two parties.
The Obligation consists of two equal and opposite Quantities:
and may be denoted by this symbol < _ j. > : where the
( + £*°°) denotes the Creditor's Right to Demand payment :
and the ( - ;£ioo) denotes the Debtor's Duty to Pay.
Also, if either of these Quantities be destroyed, the other is also
destroyed with it.
Hence, as these two Equal and Opposite Quantities come into
existence together : can only exist together : and vanish together :
they are analogous to Polar Forces.
Division of Opinion among Jurists as to the Position of the
Debtor in an Obligation.
9. We have now come to the most subtle and abstruse point in
all Economics, which will demand the closest attention : because it
is the great Serbonian bog in which multitudes of writers, literary
and mathematical, have been swallowed up, from a want of know-
ledge of the most elementary principles of Mercantile Law and
practical business: and its rectification and elucidation will open up a
completely new branch of inquiry of the greatest novelty and interest
When an Obligation has been created between two parties by the
sale of Money or Goods " on Credit," the case of the Creditor is
clear : in exchange for the Money or Goods he has received a Right
of action — which is termed a Credit or a Debt — which is his
Property: and which he can sell, or dispose of, in any way he
pleases, for other Goods, or for Money.
But a strong division of opinion exists among Jurists as to the
position of the Debtor in the Obligation.
When a merchant has bought goods " on Credit," and has given a
Bill at three months for them— Is he in Debt at the Present
Time?
Roman Jurists and English Jurists hold different doctrines on
this point.
When an Obligation was contracted the Roman Jurist said dies
cedit: when it became payable they said dies venit
"Cedere1 diem significat incipere deberi pecuniam: Venire diem
significat cum diem venisse quo pecunia peti possit."
1 Digest, 50, 16,213.
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380 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
" ' Cedit dies' means the day on which money begins to be owed ;
1 venit dies ' means the day on which it may be demanded''
The Roman Jurists held that the money was due from the day on
which the Obligation was contracted; but that the Remedy was
suspended until the day of payment came.
" Id x quod in diem stipulamur, statim quidem debetur : sed peti
priusquam dies venerit non potest"
" That which we agree to pay on a future day is indeed due at once,
but it cannot be sued for until the day of payment has come."
Paulus says2 — "Praesens obligatio est, in diem autem dilata
solutio."
" The obligation is present, but the payment is deferred until the
fixed day"
Ulpian says3 — "Ubi in diem (quis stipulatus fuerit) cessit dies,
sed nondum venit."
" Whenever anyone has agreed to pay a sum on a fixed day, the
obligation has begun to run, but the day of payment has not come"
So it was a maxim of Roman Law — " Debitum in presenti sol-
vendum in futuro.,,
" The money is due at present, but it is only to be paid in
future."
This doctrine throws considerable confusion into the nature of
an Obligation, and it was probably due to the fact that the Jurists
had not yet completely emancipated themselves from the idea that
debitum meant the money actually due ; and was only then beginning
to acquire the meaning of the abstract Incorporeal Contract, which
it means now.
But English Jurists hold quite different doctrine. As in English
Law and common usage the word Debt (passive) means simply the
abstract Personal Duty to pay, English Jurists hold that no Debt is
created until the Duty to pay comes into existence, i.e. until the day
of payment has come.
It is a maxim of English Law that Credit unexpired may be
pleaded under the General Issue ; which means that if an action is
brought against a person who has contracted an Obligation payable
at a future time, before the day of payment has come, he may reply
that he is not in Debt at all.
Thus Pitt Taylor says4 — "In addition to these examples, it may
be observed that whenever the defendant can show that in fact no
1 J n st it. fust. iii. 15, 2. * Digest, 45, I, 46.
• Digest, 50, 17, 213. * Law of Evidence, vol. I.
Digiti
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P.] Debt 381
Debt ever existed before action brought, he may do so under the plea
of never indebted.
"Thus, for instance, if the action be for goods sold and delivered,
he may defend himself under the plea by proving that they were
sold on Credit which was unexpired when the action was
commenced."
To understand the following discussions, the reader will find it
very useful to fix these principles in his mind —
1. When a person is only bound to pay a sum of money on a
future day, he is not in Debt at the present time.
2. That if a person has contracted to pay a sum of money at a
future day, his Creditor has no Right to any of his property, he
has no Jus in rem, it is only a claim against his Person, or a Jus in
personam.
A few examples will illustrate these principles.
1. Suppose that a tenant takes a house or an apartment, and
agrees to pay the rent quarterly. Suppose that the day after he had
entered into possession the landlord came and demanded his rent.
What would the tenant say? He would say — "My good friend,
Mr. Landlord, I owe you nothing. The bargain is that I am to
have the use and enjoyment of this house for three months before
the rent becomes due and payable. My Debt, or Duty to pay, does
not come into existence till then ; good morning to you."
2. So when a farmer takes a farm on a lease of 19 years, and
agrees to pay the rent half-yearly, the agreement is that he is to have
the use and enjoyment of the farm for intervals of six months,
before each instalment of rent becomes due. The successive rents
are intended and expected to be paid out of the successive profits
made out of the farm. And it is obviously absurd to say that the
farmer is indebted at the present time for rent which only becomes
due 19 years hence; and is intended and expected to be paid out
of profits which will only come into existence 19 years hence.
3. The same is obviously true in the case of a merchant who has
bought goods, and given in exchange for them his promise to pay
money for them three months hence. He is not in Debt at the
present time. The agreement is that he is to have the property in
the goods for three months, and to dispose of them in any way he
pleases, so as to make a profit out of them ; and it is expected on
both sides that he is to pay his bill out of the profits realized by the
goods. No Debt or Duty to pay comes into existence until the Bill
becomes due and payable ; and the amount of the Bill is not to be
subtracted from his present property.
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382 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
4. It is commonly said that this country is "in Debt" about
^750,000,000. The answer is that this country is not " in Debt "
one penny. For a person to be " in Debt " means that he is liable
to pay a sum of money on demand. Does anyone suppose that the
Creditors of the country can call upon her to pay ^750,000,000 on
demand? What the country has undertaken to do is to pay an
annuity of about ^7,000,000 quarterly. And as soon as one
quarter's annuity is paid she is not in debt until next quarter-day
comes round. It would be just as absurd to say that the farmer is
in Debt at the present time for nineteen years' rent The sum of
^750,000,000 is merely the Sum of the Present Values of the
annuity.
5. This principle strongly applies to a case of Conscience.
Suppose that a kind-hearted instructor engages to prepare a student
for one of the Public Services — say the Indian Civil Service — and
on his success agrees to take an Obligation payable five years after
date. On entering the service the Candidate is asked if he is in
Debt. He most properly and conscientiously replies that he is
"not in Debt"; because he has no sum of money which is payable
by him on demand. He is only bound to pay at the end of
five years; and it is quite understood on both sides that his
Obligation to his instructor is to be redeemed out of his annual
salary.
This case is an example of Novation, which will be more fully
described in a future section. When the Candidate has won his
appointment in the Indian Civil Service, he is no doubt in Debt to
his instructors. But if the instructor agrees to take an Obligation
payable five years after date, that Obligation pays, extinguishes, and
discharges the Debt payable on demand; and no new Debt arises
until the Obligation becomes due. The Release of the Debt
payable on demand is the Consideration for the Obligation payable
five years after date.
The importance of the consideration consists in this. It is
commonly supposed that when a person has to make a payment
at a future time, the sum due is to be subtracted from his present
property, and is a diminution of it It is usual to denote Debts
by the Negative Sign - ; and according to this view if a person
possessed ;£ioo, and was bound to pay ^30 three months hence,
and therefore his property would be represented by ^100 -^30;
it would mean that his property was only ^70. On a larger scale
it would mean that all the Obligations in the nation were to be
subtracted from all the property in the nation. But this view is
Digits
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D.] Debt 383
entirely erroneous. In this case the sign - does not mean sub-
traction. What it does really mean will be shewn further on.
The Debtor has the full property in his ;£ioo, to do with exactly
as he pleases. His duty to pay has no present existence ; it is no
subtraction from his present property. The expression is not to be
read as if his property were only ^70. The debt is a mere abstract
Personal Duty; and a Personal Duty cannot be subtracted from a
material sum of hard money. The expression is to be read in this
way. He possessed ^100 in money, but coupled with the Duty
to pay ^30 at some future given time. Hence the sign - does
not mean subtraction in this case, it is a mere Memorandum that
he has to make an exchange, by buying up a Right of Action, at
some future time.
Advantage of adopting the Conception of Economics as the
Science of Commerce or Exchanges.
We now see the advantage of adopting and firmly grasping
the conception of Economics as the Science of Commerce, or
Exchanges. Because all the mechanism and phenomena of the
great System of Credit, or the Creation, the Circulation, and the
Extinction of Debts — which are a hopeless puzzle and an
inscrutable perplexity, so long as Economics is treated as the
" Production, Distribution, and Consumption of Wealth " — become
perfectly clear and simple when it is understood to be the Science
of Commerce or Exchanges.
Every case of a "Loan" of Money, or a Sale of Goods, "on
Credit " is an exchange, or an act of commerce. In exchange for
the Money, or the Goods, a Right of action is created, and this
Right of Action is the Credit, or the Debt, and is the price of the
goods. This Right of Action is a Saleable Commodity, and it has
Value because it will be paid in money. This Right of Action, or
Debt, may circulate in commerce exactly like a piece of money, and
effect exchanges exactly like a piece of money, until it is paid off
and extinguished, and then it ceases to exist.
The Debt was created by one Exchange ; it then may effect any
number of exchanges ; and when it becomes due, the holder of it
brings it to the Debtor, who gives the Money, or some other form
of Credit, in exchange for the Right of Action. Thus the Debt is
created by one exchange, and is annihilated or extinguished by
another exchange, and thus the whole system and operations on
Credit are merely a series of Exchanges.
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384 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
On the Transfer of Credits or Debts
Rights of Action, Credits, or Debts are now clearly shown to be
the Name of a certain species of Merchandise, Goods, Chattels, or
Commodities, and they can be bought and sold exactly like any
other Merchandise or Commodities.
When it is seen that a Bank Note passes from hand to hand like
Money, it might perhaps be supposed that any other Debts might
be sold and transferred with equal facility. This, however, is a very
great error. There is very considerable subtlety about the sale of
Debts, and it was only by very slow and gradual degrees that Debts
became freely saleable.
If it were asked what discovery has most deeply affected the
fortunes of the human race, it might probably be said with truth—
The discovery that Debts are saleable Commodities.
When Daniel Webster said that Credit had done more, a thousand
times, to enrich nations, than all the mines of all the world, he
meant the discovery that Debts are saleable Commodities, or
Merchandise, that they may be used as Money, and that they
produce all the effects of Money.
We must now trace the origin and progress of the power of
selling Debts, and place this branch of Mercantile Law on solid
foundations.
On Property held in Contract, or on Jura in Personam.
Property, or Rights, are of two species —
1. The Property or Right to a specific chattel, termed in Law a
Jus in rem, or in re, without being related to any one else. This
kind of Right is also called Dominium. When a person has such
a sole and exclusive Right in any chattel, he may sell and transfer it
to any one else at his own good will and pleasure, and without
asking the consent of any one else.
Money, corn, cattle, timber, jewels, &c, are subject to this kind
of Property, and hence the proprietor of such chattels may freely
alienate, sell, denote, or transfer them to any one else he pleases.
2. Property, or Rights, held in Contract, or Obligation, called in
Roman Law a Jus in Personam, or a Jus ad rem {acquir-
endam) \ where a person has a Right not to any specific thing, but
only against a Person to compel him to Pay or Do something.
A simple example of this is the Contract, or Obligation, of Debt,
where one person, the Creditor, has the Right to demand a sum of
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D.] Debt 385
Money from another person, the Debtor, or has the Right to compel
him to Do something. In such a case the Creditor has no right to
any specific sum of money, or chattel, in the Debtor's possession.
And the Creditor's right against the Debtor exists whether he has
any Money to pay, or not; and equally the Debtor's duty to pay
exists whether he has any Money to pay, or not. In fact the
Contract, or Obligation, is a purely abstract relation existing
between the two parties, without any reference to any specific
money, or other chattel.
The former kind of Rights are called Real Rights, or Cor-
poreal Property, because they are the Right to certain specific
things, or chattels. The latter are called Personal Rights,
because they are mere abstract Rights against a Person, and as
the Person is always specified and definite, they are also called
Nominate Rights, but as they are wholly severed from any
specific chattels, they are one species of Incorporeal Property-
Property, or Rights, held in Contract or Obligation, are of
Two kinds.
But Property, or Rights, held in Contract, or Obligation, are of
two kinds.
1. Where there is a Right to demand on one side, and the Duty
to pay, or do, on the other, such as the relation between Creditor
and Debtor, or Landlord and Tenant in modern times.
Such a Relation is termed a Unilateral Contract
2. Where each party to the Contract has the Right to demand
and also the Duty to perform something : such as the Nexus, or
Obligation, between Landlord and Tenant in Feudal Law : or that
between Master and Servant at the present time: or that of
Marriage.
Such a Relation between the two parties is termed a Bilateral*
or Synallagmatic, Contract.
Formerly it was held universally that when Property was held in
Contract of either sort, Unilateral or Bilateral, neither party could
substitute another person for himself without the consent of the
other party to the contract. This rule must evidently hold good in
all Bilateral Contracts. When one person agrees to accept another
person to perform the Duty, he of course believes that that person
can perform the Duty. But he cannot be compelled to accept
another person to perform that Duty without his own consent,
because he cannot be sure that that other person is able to perform
2 c
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386 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
the Duty. Neither if a person has agreed to perform a duty to
another, can he be compelled to perform it to some one else, with-
out his own consent.
Thus, so long as the feudal law retained its pristine rigour, neither
the Lord nor the Vassal could substitute any one else for himself,
without the consent of the other party. Each of the parties had
Duties to perform : the Vassal to render true and loyal service : and
the Lord to render due protection and defence. And neither party
could attorn1 the other, or turn him over, to any one else without
his own consent.
As Sir Martin Wright says2 — " As the feudatary could not aliene
the feud without the consent of the Lord, so neither could the Lord
aliene, or sell, or transfer, his seignory or superiority to another
without the consent of the feudatary. For the obligations of the
superior and inferior were mutual and reciprocal : the feudatary was
really as much interested in the conduct and ability of the Lord, as
the Lord was in the qualifications and ability of his feudatary.
And as the Lord cculd not aliene, so neither could he exchange,
mortgage, or otherwise dispose of his seignory without the consent
of his vassal. Again, as the vassal, or feudatary, could not aliene,
or neither could he devise, or dispose of the feud by will, or by any
means (when the feuds were become hereditary), prevent or vary the
feudal course of succession."
So in the case of Master and Servant at the present day. A
Master cannot attorn, or transfer, his household to another master
without their own consent, as if they were cattle or slaves. Neither
can a servant substitute any one else for himself, without his master s
consent.
So if a person contracts to do any work for another, he cannot
substitute another person for himself, without the consent of the
other party to the contract
The same principle formerly held good when the Contract was
Unilateral, as in the case of Creditor and Debtor. The Creditor
could not transfer his Right of action against the Debtor to any one
else, without his consent, because the Debtor never agreed to pay
any one except his own Creditor. And the Creditor had no power
to stipulate that the Debtor should pay any Transferee of the
Debt
It is a rule of law, as well as of common sense, that no person
can be made a party to a contract without his own consent : and no
one can stipulate for another without his authority.
1 Bracton, 2, 35, 13. Lilt. 551, 567, 568. * On Tenures, p. 3a
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D.] Debt 387
Thus Ulpian says1 — " Alteri stipulari nemo potest."
44 No one can stipulate for another?
Unless, therefore, the Debtor had given authority to his Creditor
to transfer his Right, the Creditor had no power to guarantee his
Transferee that the Debtor should pay him.
Accordingly, both in Roman and English Law, for a long period,
the Creditor could not transfer his Right of Action against his
Debtor without his consent, so as to enable the Transferee to sue
the Debtor in his own name.
But both in Roman and English Law the Creditor might transfer
his Right with the consent of the Debtor. If the Debtor con-
sented, the Creditor, the Debtor, and the Transferee might meet
together: and the Creditor might transfer his Right to the Trans-
feree, and the Debtor might agree to pay the Transferee.2 In such
a case the Transferee acquired a Right of Action against the Debtor.
The release of his duty to pay his own Creditor was the considera-
tion for his promise to pay the Transferee. The Debtor was
released from his debt to his own Creditor, and the Creditor was
released from his Debt to the Transferee.
This transaction may be regarded in two lights — either as the mere
transfer of the Creditor's Rights to the Transferee, or as the
Creation of a new Contract which cancelled, discharged, and extin-
guished the former one. In the latter view it was what is called in
Roman Law a Novatio.
But, nevertheless, though it may be true in theory that a Creditor
cannot transfer his Right of Action without the consent of the
Debtor, yet, in the progress of civilization and mercantile ideas,
traders who had sold their goods on Credit began to perceive that
they might utilise their Credits, or Debts, by using them like
Money to purchase fresh goods with ; and so they began to insist
upon the Right to transfer and sell their Debts, like any other
property, and there was a very good reason for this, because in
the Contract, or Obligation, of Debt, there is manifestly a strong
distinction between the two parties, the Creditor and the Debtor.
The Debtor cannof substitute a new Debtor for himself, because
the Creditor may not have the means of knowing the solvency of
the substituted Debtor ; as, for instance, no Debtor can compel his
Creditor to accept payment of a Debt in the Notes of a country
banker, or in another person's Cheque.
Therefore, by the very nature of things, the consent of the
Creditor is necessary to the substitution of a new Debtor.
• l Digest, 45, i. 38. 9 GAIUS, ii. 38.
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388 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
But the case of the Debtor is quite different. If a person really
owes a Debt, and has the means of paying it, it cannot make the
slightest difference to him whether he pays it to A or to B, so long
as he can get a valid discharge for it, and is not liable to pay it
twice over.
Hence it is evident that while it might seriously prejudice a
Creditor to have a new Debtor assigned to him, of whom he might
know nothing, the assignment of a new Creditor can be no real
prejudice to the Debtor.
In course of time Creditors both in Rome and England insisted
on having the right to sell their Debts, and certain legal devices were
adopted to enable the Transferee to obtain payment from the Debtor,
even although he had not given his consent to the transfer. Till at
last Creditors in both countries established their right to do so, even
without the consent of the Debtor.
Thus, at last, after centuries of conflict, Credits or Debts have
come to be as freely transferable as Money itself; and in fact they
are fcr all practical purposes in all respects equivalent to an equal
increase of Money. And thus they come to be both Jura in
personam and Jura in re. And it is this absolute freedom of the
sale of Debts which has been the principal cause of the stupendous
progress and magnitude of modern commerce.
On the Transfer of Credits or Debts in Roman Law.
It has just been shown that originally, in the Unilateral Contract
between Creditor and Debtor, the Creditor could not sell or transfer
his Debt, or Right of Action, to anyone else, so as to enable the
Transferee to sue the Debtor without his own consent.
The Transferee could not sue the Debtor, because he never made
any promise that he would pay the Transferee, and thus there was
no privity of contract between them, and the Creditor could make
no engagement that the Debtor should pay the Transferee, because
no person can stipulate, or make a contract for another person,
without his consent
If, however, the Debtor agreed that his Creditor might transfer his
Right of Action, it migjit be done. The Debt being a mere abstract
Right, was not capable of being transferred by manual delivery, but
it could be transferred by Oral consent
The Creditor, the Debtor, and the Transferee met together,1 and
the Creditor with the assent of the Debtor, transferred his Right to
1 Gaius, ii. 38.
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D.] Debt 389
the Transferee by word of mouth. The Debtor agreed by word of
mouth to pay the Transferee ; the Creditor then, by word of mouth,
released the Debtor from his Debt to him ; and the Transferee by
word of mouth released the Creditor from his debt to him.
A new Contract was created, which cancelled and extinguished
the two preceding ones: and it was, therefore, called Novatio:
and the assignment of the Debtor to the Transferee was termed
Delegatio: when this solemn stipulation was completed, the
Transferee might sue the Debtor in his own name : because there
was now a privity of contract between them.
As the commercial spirit increased at Rome, Creditors began to
perceive that they might utilise their Debts by using them like
Money in commerce to buy fresh goods with : and they soon began
to devise means of transferring them, even without the consent of
the Debtor. Accordingly, though they could not divest themselves
of the legal estate in their Debts, so as to enable the Transferee to
sue the Debtor in his own name, in course of time certain legal
devices were adopted, so as to enable the Transferee in an indirect
way to recover the debt from the Debtor, even though he had not
given his consent to the transfer of the debt.
We have now to trace the steps in Roman Law by which a
Creditor came at last to have the legal right to sell or transfer his
debt, without the consent or knowledge, and even against the
consent, of the Debtor: and the Transferee acquired the right to
sue the Debtor in his own name.
The early simplicity of the Code of the XII. Tables knew
nothing of Trustees, or Attorneys. Every man was either the
absolute proprietor of a thing or he was not.1 He who possessed
the legal estate was termed Dominus ex jure QuiriHutn, or the
proprietor by the common law of the Romans. It knew nothing
of double or subordinate rights. The Code of the XII. Tables
allowed no man to sue in the name of another in private cases.2
He alone who was dominus ex jure Quiritium might sue, and that
in person : and as no man could sue unless there was some contract,
or relation, between them, the transferee of the debt could not sue
the debtor, because there was no privity of contract between them.
The Code of the XII. Tables was maintained in all its strictness
for about 277 years. During all this period the forms of writs of
action were defined with the greatest strictness. They were called
Legis Actiones : or, as we might say, Common Law writs : and as
long as these lasted, no one could sue in the name of another, or
1 GAIDS, ii. 40. a Ibid. ii. 82 ; Digest 4, 17, 123 ; Basil ii. 3, 123.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
390 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
on behalf of another. Consequently, as far as we can understand,
the Transferee of a debt could in no way, direct or indirect, main-
tain an action against the Debtor.
But in the progress of time, new rights, new interests, new wants,
and new ideas grew up: and a great equitable jurisdiction came
into existence to meet these new requirements. The supreme
judicial magistrates, the City and Foreign Praetors, were clothed
with the power Adjuvandi vel suppkndi: vel corrigendi: juris
civilis gratid, propter utilitatem publicam. The Romans had so
deep a reverence for their Code, which Cicero declares to contain in
one chapter more utility than all the libraries of the philosophers,1
that the Praetors were not allowed actually to abolish any of its
laws : but only to supply their defects, and to extend their meaning.
But new rights and new interests had grown up, which were not
capable of being protected directly by law, unless by the actual
repeal of some of the provisions of the Civil Code.
Among these new Rights were Equitable Interests. One person
might be possessed of the legal estate in certain things : but permit
another to enjoy their use and profit : without undergoing the formal
solemnity of the transfer by mancipation, or the cessio in jure.
The original owner therefore possessed the nudum jus Quiritiumf
or the mere legal estate : while the transferee possessed the profitable,
equitable, or as the mediaeval jurists termed it, the Bonitarian use.
But the Code of the XII. Tables gave no Right of Action to the
equitable owner.
Thus if a Creditor transferred his Debt, or Right of Action, with-
out the consent of the Debtor, he alone possessed the nudum jus
Quiritium, or the legal estate in it: but the Transferee possessed
the equitable right to it : but he had no Right of Action on it, by
the Code of the XII. Tables.
About the year 577 A.U.C. or 176 B.C. the Lex ALbutia abolished
the old Legis actiones, which were not part of the XII. Tables : but
only a series of writs framed by the magistrates, so as to be adapted
to them. New forms of writs were prepared under the authority of
the Praetors, called Formula : and these were adopted and extended
by two Leges Julia, about 45 b.c. : and about 25 ac2
By those new formula parties were allowed to be represented by
Cognitores or Procurators, that is, by Attorneys, who were allowed
to sue on behalf of their clients. The Transferee of the debt was
then allowed to sue as the Cognitor or Procurator of the Trans-
feror.8 Gaius gives the formula in such a case.4
1 De Oratore i. 4. 9 Gaius, iv. 30. ■ Gaius, ii. 39. 4 Gaius, iv.t 86.
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D.] Debt 391
The Praetor could only grant an actio directs or vulgaris, to the
original Creditor, but he could grant an actio utilis, or fictitia, to the
Transferee of the Debt.
When a Creditor sold his Right of Action he was said cedere or
mandate actionem.1 The Transferee was called Procurator in rem
suam :2 and he was acknowledged as the real plaintiff, si in rent
suam datus sit procurator loco domini habetur : his mandate could
not be revoked, and he owed no account to his principal.8
Such was the state of the Law regarding the sale or transfer of
Debts in the time of Gaius, who is generally supposed to have
written his Institutes in the time of the Antonines. They were the
text-book of Law throughout the whole Empire when the Romans
abandoned Britain, and many high authorities suppose that they
were greatly the source and origin of the Common Law of England,
and the Common Law of England with regard to the sale or
transfer of Debts was exactly that stated by Gaius.
Soon after the time of Gaius, however, the Emperor Alexander
Severus published a Constitution by which the absolute freedom of
the sale of Debts without the knowledge or consent of the Debtor
was recognised and allowed.
Ulpian says4 — "Nomina eorum qui sub condicione vel in diem
debent, et emere et vendere solemus : ea enim res est quae emi et
venire potest."
" We are accustomed to buy and sell Debts payable on a certain
event or on a certain day ; for that is Property which can be bought
and sold.n
Justinian in 531 declared it to be lawful to sell all actions, real as
well as personal.5
"Certi et indubitati juris est, ad similitudinem ejus qui per-
sonalem redemerit actionem, et utiliter earn movere suo nomine
conceditur, etiam eum qui in rem actiones comparaverit eadem uti
posse facultate."6
" // is clear and undoubted law, that just as he who has bought a
Personal action may sue out a writ in his own name, so he who has
bought a Real action has the same power "
So also7 — "Nominis venditio etiam ignorante vel invito eo
adversus quern actiones mandantur, contrahi solet"
" // is usual to sell a Debt without the knowledge, or even against
the consent of the Debtor"
1 Digest, 15, 33, 5 ; 16, 3, 2 ; 17, I ; 19, I, 31 ; 44, 7, 7 ; 46, 3, 76.
9 Ibid. 3, 30 ; 17, I, 8, 10 ; 44, 4 ; 4, 18, 24.
» Codex, 4. 10, 1. 4 Digest, 18, 4, 17. • Codex, 4, 39, 9.
• Ibid. 4, 39, 9. 7 Ibid. 4, 39, 3.
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392 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
So also — "Omnium rerum quas quis habere vel possidere, vel
persequi potest, venditio recte fit"
" All things which one may have or possess, or has the right to sue
for, may be lawfully sold"
So also1 — " Nomina quoque in diem vel sub conditione con-
tracta veneunt"
"Debts, also, due on a certain day, or on a certain event, may be
sold."
In the time of Gains, the Transferee of a Debt could only sue as
the Attorney of the Transferee, as he was obliged to allege the legal
estate, ox jus Quiritium, of the Transferor ; but Justinian took away
the necessity for this, and abolished the nudum jus Quiritium, as an
antiquated relic of old Roman law which was only an enigma which
puzzled law students,2 and then the Transferee could sue in his own
name.
Diocletian enacted— " Ordinarium visum est post nominis ven-
ditionem uti emptori (sicut responsum est) vel ipsi creditori postu-
lanti dandae actiones."
" // is seen that it is usual, after the sale of a Debt, to grant a writ
either on the demand of the buyer (as has been decided), or of the
creditor himself"
Thus, at length, Debts were completely emancipated from the
general rules affecting Property held in Contract They were made
as freely saleable as any material chattels: and they were thus
removed from the category of Property held in Contract to that
of Property held in Dominion : and thus Debts became both Jura
in personam and Jura in re.
These laws affecting the sale, or transfer, of Debts were confirmed
in the Basilica.
Thus, it is said8 — "ical ort ra virb fjfiepav, koi to. ko alp&rw
XP*a iriirpatTKOvrai."
"Debts payable on a certain day and on a certain event may
be sold.n
So also4 — "#cai oti rb irovpov \pcos virb alptcriv iriityMurjccrai,
*a* virb aiptcriv irovpitis"
"A simple Debt may be bought conditionally, and a conditional
Debt simply."
So again6 — "rj rov ypafxfiarctov irpSuvi? /ecu dyvoovvros koi
/ai) fiovXopivov €K€tvov, kolO' o$ kK\iapovvTai. <u dytayal, Svvarai
iruvioToxrOat."
1 Digest, 18, 4, 17. ■ Codex, 7, 25. * Basil. 19, 4, 16.
4 Ibid. 19, 4, 68. 5 Ibid. 19, 4, 27.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
D.] Debt 393
"A Debt may be sold without the knowledge, and even against
the consent of the Debtor?
Thus, the interests of commerce effected the perfect freedom in
the sale of Debts. Both by the Digest, which was the Code of
the Western Empire, and the Basilica, which was the Code of the
Eastern Empire, Debts were declared to be as freely saleable as
Money, or any other chattel.
Thus Azo, one of the legal luminaries on the revival of juridical
studies in the West, says —
"De actionibus autem venditis sciendum est quod omnes
actiones vendi possunt, sive sint purse, sive conditionales, sive
reales, sive Personales."
"But with respect to the sale of actions, it must be known that
all Rights of Action, whether simple or conditional, whether Real or
Personal^ may be sold?
Nevertheless, although it was the general law of the Empire that
all Debts might be freely sold, it was found to work so much
hardship, that many cities in the Middle Ages passed local laws
prohibiting the sale of Debts within their jurisdiction.
This investigation clears up a difficulty which has puzzled some
modern writers. The earliest Bills of Exchange extant, which are
preserved in the archives of Venice, contain no words of negotia-
bility; and yet we know as a fact that they were negotiated.
Several writers have endeavoured to discover when Bills of Ex-
change were made negotiable. Some have attributed it to Cardinal
Richelieu. But all doubts have now been cleared up. Bills of
Exchange required no words of negotiability to make them negoti-
able: they were as transferable as Money itself, by the general
mercantile law of Europe.
This also explains a fundamental distinction between the Common
Law of England and the Common Law of Scotland, with respect
to Bills of Exchange. By the Common Law of England, unless
a Bill of Exchange is drawn payable to " order " or to " bearer " :
that is, unless it is made transferable by the consent of the Debtor
expressed on its face: it cannot be transferred so as to enable
the Transferree to sue the Acceptor in his own name. But by
the Common Law of Scotland, a Bill of Exchange requires no
words of negotiability to make it transferable : the Law of Justinian
on mercantile matters is the Common Law of Scotland: a Bill
of Exchange is therefore in its very nature transferable by the
lex loci contractus: and being so, a Scotch Bill is negotiable in
England without any words of negotiability. Moreover, by the
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394 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Law of Scotland, a Debtor is bound to accept a Bill drawn upon
him by his Creditor, and is liable to an action for non-acceptance.
This, however, is not the case in England : a Debtor in England
is not bound to accept a Bill drawn upon him by his Creditor,
and this distinction has been preserved and confirmed by the
Bills of Exchange Act of 1882. And the reason of this difference
is that the Law of the Pandects and the Basilica is the Common
Law of Scotland, while the Common Law of England is that of
Gaius.
Equity, however, always adopted the Law of the Pandects, which
allowed the free sale of Debts; and, consequently, though the
Transferee of a Bill which contained no words of negotiability
could not maintain an action at law against the acceptor, he could
always sue him in Equity, in case of need But the Supreme Court
of Judicature Act of 1873 enacts that in all cases in which the rules
of Equity conflict with those of Common Law, the rules of Equity
shall prevail ; consequently, Bills of Exchange are now transferable
without any words of negotiability.
On the Extinction of Obligations.
On the Limits of Credit
We have now to consider the various methods by which Obliga-
tions are extinguished. Credit being the Right to demand some
person to pay or do something ; and Debt the Duty of that person
to pay or do something : of course when the Debtor has paid or
done the thing he is bound to do he has fulfilled and discharged
his Duty, and therefore the Right of the Creditor is satisfied and
extinguished; and thus the Obligation is annihilated and ex-
tinguished.
It has been shown over and over again that Credit is the name
of a Species of Property, Commodity, or Merchandise, of the same
nature as, but inferior in degree to, Money ; that it fulfils exactly
the same function as Money as a Medium of Exchange and Cir-
culation. It is a Property, Commodity, or Merchandise cumulative
to Money ; and is in all its effects on prices and production exactly
equivalent to an equal sum of Money.
Credit is, in fact, to Money what Steam is to Water ; and like that
power, while its use within proper limits is one of the most beneficial^
inventions ever devised by the ingenuity of man, its misuse by un
skilful and unscrupulous persons has produced the most fearful
calamities. Credit, like Steam, has its limits; and we have now
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D.] Debt 395
to investigate the proper limits of Credit ; and to explain the various
methods by which it is extinguished.
Credit, no doubt, is of the same nature as Money, being the
Right or Title to a future payment But there is this difference
between them, that there is no time limited in which the holder
of Money shall demand a satisfaction for it; nor is it limited to
any particular satisfaction. He may keep it as long as he pleases
himself; or he may transmit to his descendants, and they may receive
a satisfaction at any time they please for the services done by their
ancestor.
But Credit is always created with the express intention of being,
or of being capable of being, extinguished at a certain short definite
time ; at least Mercantile Credit is, of which alone we are treating
here. It is unextinguished Credit which produces those terrible
monetary cataclysms which scatter ruin and misery among nations.
It is chiefly by the creation of excessive Credit that over-production
is brought about, which causes those catastrophes called Commercial
Crises; and it is the inability of Credit shops to extinguish the
Credit they have created — commonly called the failure of Banks —
which is the cause of the most frightful social calamities of modern
times.
The true limits of Credit may be seen by the meaning of the
word. Because all Credit is the promise to pay or do something
in future ; and that something, whatever it is, is the Value of the
promise or Credit That something need not necessarily be Money,
it may be anything else ; it may be any other chattel ; or it may be
a promise to do something.
The Credits, however, which are the subject of this work are
always promises to pay Money, and it is just on this point that
literary Economists are utterly at fault. Because a Bill, or Note,
is an Obligation to pay money, many uninformed writers suppose
that they must always be paid in Money or Bank Notes, and
therefore that the issues of Credit must always have a fixed and
definite relation to the quantity of Money in a country; or in
mathematical language are a definite function of it ; now it is true
that Credit must always bear a relation to the Money in the country;
but it is not a fixed relation ; it depends to a very great extent,
indeed, on the organisation of the system of Credit; hence
as the quantity of Credit to Money varies according to the
different methods in which Credit is organised, we may say, if
we may coin the term, that Credit is a contingent function of
Money.
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396 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
To show how extremely ignorant writers are of the actual organisa-
tion of the modern system of Credit, we may quote a sentence from
Colonel Torrens, who was one of the influential sect who procured
the enactment of the Bank Charter Act of 1844. He says,1 "A
Bill of Exchange may also pass from purchasers to vendors many
times a day ; but no one of the successive transactions of which it
is the medium can be finally closed until the last recipient has
received in Coin or Bank Notes the amount it represents." A state-
ment also which appears in Mill
No doubt 200 years ago, as far as we are aware, the vast majority
of bills were paid in Money or Bank Notes : but that has long
ceased to be the case. At the present day probably not one bill in
100,000 is ever paid in Money or Bank Notes: but by other
methods which we have now to describe.
Those who imagine that Bills and Notes at the present day
are always paid in Money or Bank Notes have as much idea of
the truth as those who know nothing of steam navigation beyond
the little Comet of four-horse power which paddled down the Clyde
in 181 2, have of the triple expansion engines of the Campania:
or as those who know nothing of a locomotive beyond Stephenson's
Rocket have of the last new locomotive on the London
and North Western Railway. The organisation and expansion
of the System of Credit have developed pari passu with that of
the steam engine.
The only real difficulty in the case, as has been frequently
observed, is for lay readers and writers to understand that a
Right of Action, a Promise to Pay, which is a Credit, or a Debt,
is itself independent exchangeable Property or Merchandise, or a
Chattel, quite distinct from the Money promised itself, and that
it circulates in commerce by itself, exactly like Money.
But of course the Value of the Promise or Right of Action
is the thing itself: and consequently if the thing itself is not
forthcoming, the Right of Action has lost its Value. This con-
sideration at once shows the Limit of Credit. Assuming the Credit
to be, what is its best known form in this country, the Right
to demand Money, it is quite clear that as long as a person has
in his possession sufficient Money, or what is held to be Equivalent
to Money, to discharge his Debt when it becomes due, the Credit
has not been excessive.
1 The Principles and Practical Operation of Sir Robert PeeVs Act of 1844
explained and defended, p. 79.
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D.] Debt 397
The futile nature of the speculations of lay writers on this
subject consists in the fact, that by the highly organized system
of modern Credit, it is only an infinitesimal portion of Bills
that are ever paid in Money at all: but they are paid in the
Equivalents to Money.
The institution of Banks and Bankers who create Currency
by means of their Credit, either in the form of Deposits or Notes,
has enlarged the Limits of Credit at least a thousand-fold: but
yet the principle of the Limit remains the same. Credit always
has to be redeemed : and if this can be done the Credit has been
sound. Hence, Credit is never excessive, whatever its absolute
amount may be, as long as it always returns into itself.
On the Extinotlon of Obligations.
We have now to consider the various methods by which
Obligations are extinguished. Credit being the Right to demand
something to be paid or done: and the Debt being the Duty
to pay or do that something : the Payment, or the Performance of
the thing, fulfils, discharges, and extinguishes the Duty: as well
as the Right. And thus the Obligation is absolutely annihilated
and extinguished.
Commercial Credit in this country is always expressed to be
payable in Money : and it is often supposed that Bills of Exchange
are always paid in Money, or Bank Notes. But as has been shown
in the preceding paragraph, that is a vital error.
There are other methods besides payment in Money by which
Obligations are extinguished. And in this country the amount
of Bills which are paid in Money is absolutely infinitesimal
compared to those which are paid in other ways.
There are four different methods by which Obligations may
be extinguished : these are —
i. By Acceptation : or Release.
2. By Payment in Money.
3. By Novation : Renewal or Transfer.
4. By Compensation : or Set-off.
For which we must refer to the several articles under these heads.
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398 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
DEPOSIT.
The word Deposition is one of that class of Latin words which in
classical Latin meant a material thing, but which in modern Com-
merce, or Economics, means only an abstract Right.
A Depositum in Roman Law meant anything which was placed in
the gratuitous charge, or custody, of some person, for the sole
purpose of safe keeping, without the property in it passing to him,
or his being allowed to use it in any way for his own profit or
advantage, or even being allowed to retain as a security for a Debt
due to him.
It is part of the duty of a London banker to take charge of his
customer's plate, jewellery, and securities, if required to do so.
This plate, jewellery, and securities so committed to his charge
solely for safe custody, is what in Roman Law is called a
Depositum.
The banker acquires no property in such a Depositum. He can
make no use of it for his own profit or advantage; he receives
no remuneration for keeping it, and he has no lien on it, if his
customer becomes indebted to him ; and he is bound to return it
on demand (Dig. 16, 3, 1, 24, 45 ; 16, 3, 34).
So if a customer tied up a sum of money in a bag, and delivered
it to his banker for the sole purpose of safe keeping, it would be a
Depositum, and the banker would be bound to redeliver the specific
bag of money to him on demand untouched. It is said that in the
great crisis in America in 1893, customers withdrew their balances
from their current accounts, which were mutua or credita, to the
amount of ^80,000,000, tied them up in bags, and redelivered
them to their bankers to keep for them as Depositee and then of
•course the bankers could not touch them.
If a banker were to use the money, jewellery, and securities placed
with him as Deposita for his own profit and advantage, it would be
a felony, and he would be liable to penal servitude, as too many
bankers have found to their cost
It is almost universally supposed by lay writers, that when a
customer pays in money to his account with his banker it is a
Deposit, and that the " Deposits " of a bank are the cash held by it
This, however, is a most vital error.
When a customer pays in money to his account with his banker
in the ordinary way, he loses all property in it The banker acquires
the absolute property in it, and may use it in any way he pleases for
Digits
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D.] Deposit 399
his own profit and advantage. Such money is not, therefore, a
Depositum; it is a Mutuutn, or a Creditum.
If the money so paid in were a Depositum^ it would mean that
the banker acquired no property in it ; that the property in it re-
mained with the customer who placed it in the banker's hands for
pure safe keeping, and that he could demand back that specific sum
of money at any time he pleased. But every person who thinks,
knows that such ideas are erroneous.
The banker purchases the money absolutely, and in exchange for
it he creates a Credit in his books in favour of his customer. That
is, he issues a Right of Action against himself to his customer,
entitling him to demand back an equivalent sum of money at any
time he pleases. And it is this Right of Action, Credit, or Debt
recorded in his books in his customer's favour which, in the
technical language of modern banking, is termed a Deposit ; that
is, he buys the money by creating a Deposit
So when a banker discounts or buys a Bill of Exchange from his
customer, he buys the Right of Action from him exactly in the same
way as he bought the money. He creates a Credit in his books in
his favour ; that is, he issues a Right of Action to him. This Right
of Action, Credit, or Debt is the price he pays for the Bill. And
this Right of Action, Credit, or Debt created to buy the bill is
termed a Deposit, equally as the Right of Action created to pur-
chase the money. Thus he buys a Right of Action, payable at a
future time, by creating another Right of Action, payable on
demand. The money and the bills are the banker's assets. The
Deposits are the Rights of Action he has created to purchase his
assets, or his Liabilities. Every advance a banker makes is done
by creating a Deposit. His Depositors are those persons who have
Rights of Action against him to pay their balances in money
on demand. A Deposit is simply a Liability or a Banking
Credit
That this is the true meaning of the word Deposit is known to
every banker, though it is an impenetrable mystery to lay writers.
Thus, Mr. G. W. Norman said before the Committee of the House
of Commons in 1840 (A. 1696) : "By a banker's deposit, I mean a
Credit in a banker's books ; nothing more or less than that." And
if lay writers would only look at the weekly accounts of the Bank of
England, they would see the Deposits classed under the head of
Liabilities, not Assets. In his message to Congress in 1836,
President Jackson said : " These Credits in the books of some of
Che Western Banks usually called Deposits."
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400 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
In Banking Language a Deposit and an Issue are the same.
In the technical language, then, of modern banking, a Deposit
and an Issue are the same thing. A Deposit is simply a Credit in
a banker's books. It is the evidence which a customer has of his
Right of Action to demand a sum of money from the banker. As
soon as the banker has created a Credit or Deposit in his books in
favour of his customer, he has issued a Right of Action against
himself.
The word Issue comes from exitus, a giving forth ; and, in Mer-
cantile Law, to Issue an instrument is to deliver it to anyone so as
to give him a Right of Action against the deliverer or issuer.
It in no way increases the banker's liability to write down this
Right of Action, Credit, or Deposit on paper in the form of a Bank-
note or a Cheque. Such documents are only made after the Credit
or Deposit has been created or issued, and their sole purpose is to
facilitate the transfer of the Right of Action or Deposit to someone
else.
And as every advance a banker makes is done by creating and
issuing a Right of Action against himself to his customer, and as a
banker has an unlimited right of buying any amount of Debts or
Obligations from his customers by creating as many of these
Deposits, Rights of Action, or Issues as he pleases, it follows that
every banker has the right of Unlimited Issue.
Bank-notes and Cheques, then, do not increase a banker's
liabilities. The liability is created when the banker has entered
the amount to his customer's Credit in his books.
The Note or the Cheque is merely a convenient method of trans-
ferring the pre-created Right of Action, or Debt, which has already
been issued.
Deposits, then, instead of being Cash, or a part of the banker's
Assets, as is so commonly supposed, are nothing but Rights of
Action, Credits, or Debts, which the banker has created as the price
to purchase the Cash and Bills, which figure in the account as his
Assets. They are his Liabilities. And a sudden increase of
Deposits is, therefore, nothing more than inflation of Credit, exactly
similar to a sudden increase of Bank-notes. Deposits are nothing
but Bank-notes in disguise.
As this error regarding the meaning of the word Deposit is
almost universal among writers and speakers on banking, we may
cite one conspicuous example of it.
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D.] Deposit 401
Mr. John Torr, a Liverpool merchant, was questioned by Mr.
Wilson before a Committee of the House of Commons on the
Monetary Panic of 1858.
Q. 4939. " I believe I am correct in the fact that all the trans-
actions of the banks in New York are published periodically, and at
very short intervals, by the banking department?" "I believe they
are published weekly."
Q. 4940. " These accounts, as they are published, show the circu-
lation of notes, the amount of specie held by the banks, the amount
of advances made by the banks, and all the items in great detail, do
they not?" "They do."
Q. 4941. " Are you aware that during the last two or three years,
while the circulation of notes had not increased at all, or had
increased to the very smallest possible amount, the amount of
advances, as shown by these accounts, had, as you have referred to,
increased to a very enormous amount ? " " Yes ; I must apologise
for the answer I gave. I meant the advances when I said the notes.
I meant the Liability of the bank from its advances made on
securities."
Q. 4942. Chairman (Mr. Cardwell) : "The mere act of making
an advance does not render a person liable. Of course^ the liability
is the other way ? " " Yes."
Q. 4943. "Will you trace the process by which the banks inj
creased their own liabilities by making advances to others?"
" Looking at the securities which they held from other parties, by
making advances to a number of merchants to a larger amount than
usual, they felt that the indebtedness of these parties to them was
more than prudent."
Q. 4944. Mr. Wilson : " Do you think that the banks had made
undue and imprudent advances in the loan of their Capital and
Deposits V " I apprehend that they thought so."
Q. 4947. " But it would be either from Deposits or Capital that
increased advances could be made by the banks?" "Certainly."
Q. 4948. " Therefore, if you are aware that increased advances
were made to a large extent, it must have been either from an
increase of subscribed Capital, or from an increase of Deposits ? "
" Yes ; I apprehend so."
Mr. Cardwell and Mr. Wilson were considered to be among the
ablest financiers of their day, and yet neither of them had the least
knowledge of the true nature and mechanism of banking. Mr.
Torr had a perception of the real nature of it, for he says that the
banks had increased their liabilities by their advances. But he held
2 D
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402 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
his knowledge so loosely, that he was easily shaken out of it, and
gave in to Mr. Cardwell and Mr. Wilson. Neither of these gentle-
men had the least idea of the nature and ordinary business of
banking, because banks make all their advances by creating and
issuing liabilities. This, however, seemed a paradox to Mr. Card-
well, who sneeringly asked the witness to explain how banks
increased their own liabilities by making advances to others, which
any bank clerk could have told him. Mr. Wilson asked him if the
banks made imprudent advances out of their Capital and Deposits.
Banks have no Deposits in the juridical meaning of the term.
What they have are Mutua, or Credita. But they make all advances
by creating Deposits ; i.e. Credits, or Rights of Action. And thus
all banks make advances by increasing their liabilities, which was so
sore a puzzle to Mr. Cardwell.
This misconception of the meaning of the word Deposit leads to
a somewhat amusing error, which is usually seen in the newspapers
every half-year after the Joint Stock Banks publish their accounts.
They give summaries of the accouuts of the banks, which show that
they have about ^800,000,000 of Deposits. And these innocent
writers evidently consider that these are Deposits of cash, and
they hold up their hands in astonishment at the vast quantity of
cash the banks hold, which they assume are the savings of the
people.
Now, as no one supposes that there are more than ^90,000,000
of gold coin in the country, it would somewhat puzzle these in-
genious gentlemen to explain how there can be ^800,000,000 of
Deposits of cash in the banks. But any one conversant with
banking would tell them that these ^800,000,000 are not Deposits
of cash, but they are mere creations of Credit, and that they are
nothing more than Bank-notes in disguise.
DEPRECIATION AND DIMINUTION IN VALUE.
We must now observe the distinction between two expressions
which, though often used indiscriminately, are essentially distinct
An Alteration in Value of any commodity means that any
Quantity of it which was considered equal in value to any Quantity
of another commodity has undergone a change. If corn is at any
time worth 40s. a quarter, and at another time is worth only 30$-. a
quarter, these two Quantities have undergone an Alteration in
Value.
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D.] Depreciation and Diminution in Value 403
Depreciation means that it is not really of the Quality it pro-
fesses to be.
Alteration in Value always refers to some other commodity with
which it is compared. Depreciation is used in reference to itself;
hence, Alteration in Value refers to External Quantity, Depreciation
to Internal Quality, which, however, may affect its external
relations.
If at any time an ounce of gold will exchange for fifteen ounces
of silver, and if, in consequence of an increase in the quantity of
silver, an ounce of gold becomes able to purchase thirty ounces of
silver, then silver is said to have fallen in value with respect to gold,
the quality of silver remaining exactly the same. Or if, while the
quantity of silver remained the same, gold became so scarce that an
ounce of gold would similarly purchase thirty ounces of silver, gold
would be said to have risen in value with respect to silver. In either
case the result is the same; there is an Alteration in Value, or a
change in the exchangeable relation of the two metals, while each
continues of exactly the same quality.
But if a piece of money, as a sovereign, which ought by law to
contain a certain amount of pure gold, does not contain the amount
it ought to; or if a shilling, which ought to contain a certain
amount of pure silver, does not contain the amount it ought to, it is
Depreciated ; so also if a Bank-note, which professes to be of the
value of five sovereigns, will only exchange for four sovereigns, it is
Depreciated.
These distinctions are of great importance, though they are often
overlooked. They are especially necessary to be observed in all
discussions regarding the value of coins which retain the same name
through a long series of ages. The pound of money in the days of
William I. really meant a pound weight of silver bullion, and silver
was the only money. Since then silver has greatly increased in
quantity, and other things, such as gold, copper, and credit, are used
as money as well, which have greatly tended to diminish the value
of silver. It is said that silver has fallen to the twelfth part of its
value in those times. But not only has the value of silver greatly
Diminished, but also the coinage is greatly Depreciated. The
shilling was then the twentieth part of a pound of silver bullion ; it
is now only the sixty-sixth part. Hence, not only is silver greatly
Diminished in Value^ but the coinage is also greatly Depreciated^ and
it is said that in consequence of these combined causes, the modern
shilling is only of the thirty-sixth part of the value it was in the
time of William I.
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404 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
These causes affecting the value of coins which retain their names
through long periods, may act in the same or in opposite directions.
In the coinage of England, these two causes have acted in the same
direction. But they may also act in opposite directions. A coinage
may be greatly depreciated, i.e. reduced in weight, but, from the
increased value of the material, it may retain its former value, or
may be able to purchase as much as it did in its original state. It
is sometimes alleged that this happened at Rome. The first coinage
of Rome was of copper, and the metal was found in great abund-
ance for a considerable time after the foundation of the city. The
first measure of value was the as, which was a pound weight of
copper. The as was subsequently, at the time of the second Punic
War, reduced to the twelfth part of its weight. And some writers
allege that in consequence of the great scarcity of the metal, it had
increased in value so much that the depreciated coinage would
purchase as much as the full pound of copper would originally.
This may have been so or not, but it in no way affects the argu-
ment ; it may very possibly have been so.
This is necessary to be observed in comparing prices at the
present day with those of former times. It is necessary to compare
the state of the coinage at the two periods.
These considerations greatly affect the public in the matter of
public Debts. The State agrees, at a particular time, to pay a fixed
quantity of bullion for ever, or for a long period of time, to its
creditors. Now, even supposing that all other things remain the
same, the Value of Money may vary greatly during long periods of
time, either from the increased scarcity, or the increased abundance
of the metal, and either the State or its Creditors may be grievously
affected by these changes.
The public debt of England has not been sufficiently long in
existence to be much affected by this last consideration, but it has
been sensibly felt in perpetual leases granted by Corporations to
their tenants several centuries ago to their tenants. In many cases,
rents were fixed in the money of the period, and in consequence of
the diminution in value of money, and the depreciation of the
coinage since that time, the rents have fallen to a little more than a
nominal amount at the present time. In other cases the rents were
reserved, payable in the value of certain quantities of com, and the
far-seeing lessors who did this, have preserved their rents at a much
higher value.
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D.] Discount 405
DISCOUNT.
Profits made by lending, i.e. selling (Loan) money for Debts, are
made in two ways : —
1. When the person who sells the Money and buys the Debt
agrees to defer receiving the profit until the end of the time agreed
upon, it is called Interest (Interest).
The Debt is the price of the Money, and the Money is the price
of the Debt
2. The difference between the Money advanced and the Debt, or
the profit, may be retained at the time of the purchase of the Debt.
The profit is then termed Discount.
But Discount itself is of two kinds : —
(a) In the ordinary books of Algebra, it is said that Discount is
where the profit is retained at the time of the purchase, and the
sum paid for the Debt is such a sum as, improved at the given rate
of Interest, should be equal to the full amount of the Debt at the
end of the period of advance.
It is, therefore, the Present Value of the sum agreed upon at the
given rate of Interest This may be called Algebraical Discount
It is used by Insurance Offices in making advances, and in some
other cases.
{p) But this kind of Discount is never used by bankers and dealers
in money. In banking it is universally the custom to retain the full
amount of the profit agreed upon at the time of purchasing the Debt.
Thus, if a banker discounts a bill for ;£ioo for a year at 5
per cent., he deducts and retains the full £5 at the time of the
purchase, and gives his customer a Credit for ^95. That is, he
creates a Right of Action, or Debt, against himself of ^95 to
purchase the Right to demand ;£ioo at the end of the year.
As this method of Discount is invariably used by bankers and
money-lenders, it may be termed Banking1 Discount.
The Rate of Discount is the ratio of the profit to the amount
of the Debt made in some given time as the year.
To Discount a bill is to purchase the Right of Action, or Debt,
by giving in exchange for it a certain sum of Money or Credit.
The profits made by Interest and Algebraical Discount are exactly
equal. But Banking Discount is more profitable, because in Interest
a profit of £$ is made on the actual advance of ;£ioo, and it is only
made at the end of the year ; but in Discount, the same profit is made
on the advance of the £<)$> and so it may be traded with at once.
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406 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
So long as the Rate of Discount is low, there is not much
difference between the profit made by Interest and Banking Dis-
count. But as the Rate of Discount increases, the profits made
increase at a very rapid ratio, as may easily be seen.
If a person " lends " ;£ioo at 20 per cent. Interest, he advances
j£ioo, and at the end of the year receives ^120, which is profit at
the rate of 20 per cent
If he discounts a bill for ;£ioo at 20 per cent, he advances only
;£8o, and at the end of the year receives ;£ioo, which is a profit of
25 per cent.
If he "lends" ^100 at 50 per cent Interest, he advances ;£ioo,
and at the end of the year receives ^150, which is profit at the rate
of 50 per cent
If he discounts a bill for ;£ioo at 50 per cent, he advances only
^50, and at the end of the year receives ^100, which is a profit of
100 per cent
So discounting a bill for ;£ioo at 60 per cent is a profit of 150
per cent.
If a person lends ;£ioo at 100 per cent Interest, he advances
j£ioo, and at the end of the year receives ^200, which is a profit
of 100 per cent
If he discounted a bill for ;£ioo at 100 per cent, he would
advance Nothing, and at the end of the year he would receive
;£ioo, or his profit would be Infinite.
It would be out of place here to investigate the whole Theory of
Banking Discount, but we have given a full exposition of it in our
Theory and Practice of Banking and Elements of Economics.
The Athenian bankers seem to have invented the method of
Discount which stirred the soul of Plutarch to phrenzy. In his
violent tirade against money lending, he is particularly severe
against the invention of discounting : — " It is said that hares bring
forth and nourish their young at the same time that they conceive
again, but the debts of these scoundrels and savages bring forth
before they conceive ! For they give, and immediately demand
back, and take away their money at the time they place it out, and
they place out at interest what they receive as interest The
Messenians have a proverb: —
' There is a Pylos before Pylos, and yet another Pylos still ' ;
but it may be said to the usurers,
There is a Profit before Profit, and yet another Profit still.
"And then, forsooth, they laugh at philosophers who say that
'nothing can come from nothing.'"
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D.] Dock Warrant 407
DISTRIBUTION.
Distribution is one of the fundamental terms in the definition of
Economics, framed by the Economists as an alternative definition to
that of Commerce, or Exchanges.
Producers, as defined by the Economists, were those persons who
obtained the raw produce from the earth and brought it into
commerce. But this raw produce was generally not fit to be used
at once, and it had to undergo a number of changes by manu-
facturing and transport from place to place before it was finally
taken out of commerce for use and enjoyment by the ultimate
consumer, or purchaser. All these intermediate processes between
the first production and the ultimate consumption, or purchase, of
the object were termed Distribution by the Economists, and the
persons who were engaged in them were termed Distributors. Thus
the term Distribution, as used by the Economists, was restricted to
Distribution by Exchanges. Smith does not entitle a portion of his
work as Distribution, but his use of the word is the same as that of
the Economists.
But J. S. Mill has entirely destroyed the scientific unity of the
subject His second Book is on Distribution. But under this
term he treats of Communism, St. Simonianism, Fourierism,
Inheritance, Slavery, Peasant Proprietors, Metayers, Cottiers.
Now what have these subjects got to do with Exchanges or
Commerce? Absolutely nothing. The discussions may be
interesting in themselves, but what place do they hold in the
principles and mechanism of commerce? By introducing these
subjects as he has done, Mill entirely destroys the scientific unity
of the subject ; and if he thought it expedient to discuss them, they
ought to have been relegated to quite a different place.
DOCK WARRANT.
A Dock Warrant is a Jus in rem. When persons deposit goods
in a Dock Warehouse, the Dockmaster gives them a written receipt
for the goods, which is called a Dock Warrant This document
is transferable by indorsment, like a Bill of Lading, and the indorsee
acquires the property in the goods, and may claim them from the
Dockmaster. This Warrant is termed in law a Document of
Title.
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408 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
DRAFT.
A written order from one person to another who Holds a sum of
money as a Depositum, as the Trustee, Bailee, Agent, or Servant of
the Drawer, to pay a sum of money to another person, is termed a
Draft, or Order for the payment of money.
Bills of Exchange and Drafts are of exactly the same form and
external appearance. There is, however, an essential distinction
between them both in Law and Economics. This essential distinc-
tion consists in the difference in the relations between the parties to
the instrument.
In a Bill of Exchange the Drawee is, or appears to be, the Debtor
to the Drawer. The property in the money drawn for resides in the
Drawee : the Drawer is his Creditor, and he has only a Right of
Action to compel the Drawee to pay a sum of money, but he has no
right or title to any specific money in the Drawee's possession.
In a Draft, the property in the money resides in the Drawer.
The Drawee merely holds it as a Depositum ; it is merely entrusted
to him for custody and safe keeping. He has possession of it only
as the Trustee, Bailee, Agent, or Servant of the Drawer, and if he
appropriated it to his own use it would be a felony.
Hence, in such a case, when the Drawer draws a Draft, or Order
for the payment of money on his servant, and delivers it to another
person, he is not transferring a Right of Action, or Debt due to
him; he is directing his servant to deliver to a certain person a
portion of his own money which is in the custody of his servant
Also, the holder of the fund is not personally liable on such a
Draft, or Order ; he is only bound to pay it if he has money of the
Drawer's in his possession. Consequently such a Draft, or Order, is
not a Credit, or a Personal Obligation ; it is a Title to an undefined
portion of some specific money.
Such an Order is not a Bill of Exchange ; it is contrary to the
fundamental nature of a Bill of Exchange.
If a Bank has several branches, Orders granted by the head office
on the branches, or vice versd, are not Bills of Exchange, but Drafts.
Thus, every Bill of Exchange is an Order to pay money; but
every Order to pay money is not a Bill of Exchange. The word
Order includes both Bills and Drafts.
The distinction between Bills and Drafts, both in Law and
Economics, is most important
Drafts, like Bills of Lading and Dock Warrants, always arise out
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E.] Estate 409
of a Bailment or Deposit of money, and consequently cannot
exceed in quantity the money deposited. The fund in charge of
the Treasurer is withdrawn from circulation, and locked up in the
vaults of the Treasury, and the Drafts drawn upon it can never be
in circulation as well as the money they relate to. Hence such
Drafts do not increase the Currency, or Circulating Medium, and
have no effect on prices.
But a merchant can issue Bills or Notes far exceeding the money
he may possess at any given time, because he is not bound to have
any money in reserve at the time he issues them ; he is only bound
to have money to meet them on a given day, even if he does pay
them in money. But, as a matter of fact, in modern commerce,
Bills are very rarely indeed paid in money, but by other methods
(Compensation — Novation). The practical result is that the
Bills and Notes and other forms of Credit in circulation exceed
about 100 times the quantity of money they are supposed to repre-
sent Bills and Notes form part of the Currency, or Circulating
Medium, and affect prices exactly like an equal amount of gold.
ESTATE.
The word Estate is one of those in English which, by a cor-
ruption of language, are supposed to mean things, but which in
reality mean abstract Rights.
Thus, when a nobleman or gentleman is said to own a large
Estate, it is popularly supposed that he has the Property in a
large quantity of Land, and the Land is supposed to be his Estate.
That, however, is a complete error. In the first place, as Mr.
Williams says : — " The first thing the student has to do, is to get
rid of the idea of absolute ownership. Such an idea is quite
unknown to English Law. No man is in law the absolute owner
of lands. He can only hold an Estate in them."
Absolute Property in land is termed allodial. In the Roman
Empire, the owners of land held it in absolute property or Dom-
inium, without any superior. And before the Conquest, this was
the case in England, as well as in other countries. Wherever
Roman Law prevailed, the land was equally divided among a man's
children at his death, the same as his movable goods. This was
the origin of the small properties in France, which so many believe
was the consequence of the French Revolution. Whereas the fact
is that this law was inherited from the Roman Empire, and applied
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410 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
to all roturier land. But all feudal land was taken out of its opera-
tion, and subjected to the law of primogeniture. What the French
Revolution did was to re-establish the law of equal partition in
regard to feudal land. The law of equal division also prevailed in
England, and it is supposed that the multitudinous hedgerows,
which in many parts of the country used to divide the land into so
many minute patches, but which greatly disappeared before improve-
ments in agriculture, were the consequences of this law.
Feudal tenure had, to a certain extent, been introduced into
England before the Conquest. But William I. assumed the absolute
property of all the lands in England, except Church lands and the
county of Kent, for the Crown. He made a composition with the
men of Kent to maintain their ancient customs, so that the land in
Kent remains, as formerly, divisible among the family. This is
called the custom, or law, of Gavelkind; but most of the land in
Kent has been disgavelled by various Acts of Parliament
The Conqueror, then, being the sole absolute proprietor of the
land in England, except as above, granted out to his followers
certain Rights of use and enjoyment in certain lands, and those
Rights were termed Estates.
But the persons to whom these Rights were granted were bound
to render certain services in return, and they were never called
owners, or proprietors, but only Tenants. They were only per-
mitted to enjoy the use and profits of these lands on the express
condition of rendering those services to the Crown, which, if they
failed to do, they were as strictly liable to forfeiture as a modern
tenant or farmer for non-payment of rent. And at first these
Estates were neither alienable nor transmissible by will, but were
strictly life tenancies, which reverted to the Crown at the death of
the tenant.
Thus Littleton speaks of Tenants in fee simple, Tenants for life.
Tenants at will, Tenants by copy, Tenants for terms of years,
Tenants in common, Tenants by grand serjeanty ; and the index, or
tabula, says : " The first book is of Estates which men have in lands
and tenements " ; and in p. i he says : " For these words (his heirs)
make the Estate of inheritance." So in B. III., ch. 2 : "Of Estates
upon condition/' he says, "estates which men have in lands or
tenements upon condition, are of two sorts," and so on in many
passages. Littleton would never have dreamt of applying the word
Estate to the land itself.
So Bacon says: "Property of land by conveyance is first
distributed into Estates for years, for life, in tail, and fee
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E.] Exchange 41 1
simple. These Estates are created by word, by writing, or
by record."
An Estate is, therefore, always a Right of an inferior order to
Property. It in reality means a Lease, as Bacon says: "For
Estates for years, which are commonly called Leases for years.
Such Interests or Estates in land were always given as the fee or
reward for services rendered to -the Crown." So Bacon also says :
" The last and greatest Estate of lands is fee simple, and beyond
this there is none of the former for lives, years, or entails, but
beyond them is fee simple. For it is the greatest, last, and utter-
most degree of Estates in land."
The true meaning of Estate, therefore, is a Lease or Right to use
a thing derived from a higher power, for which some service is given,
which is feudal property ; and an Estate in fee simple, means a
perpetual lease of lands or tenements, and is in strictness only
applicable to land.
The true meaning of the word Estate is also shown in the
Tempest, where Iris says: —
" A contract of true love to celebrate,
And some donation freely to Estate,
On the blessed lovers."
So ^Egeus, in Midsummer Night's Dream^ says : —
" And all my Right of her,
I do Estate onto Demetrius."
So Oliver, in As You Like ft, says: "All the revenue that was
old Sir Rowland's will I Estate upon you."
EXCHANGE.
An Exchange in commerce is when a person pays a Debt he
owes to a Creditor by transferring to him a Debt due to him from
someone else.
It is a Delegation or one form of a Nevatio.
Thus, where a person pays his Creditor by a Bank-note or by a
Cheque on his banker, or by drawing a Bill of Exchange on another
person, it is an Exchange.
Two passengers are travelling in an omnibus. The fare is six-
pence. One passenger pays th^ conductor a shilling ; the conductor
is then indebted to that passenger in sixpence. Another passenger
has a sixpence in his hand ready to pay his fare. The conductor,
by a nod, tells him to give the sixpence to the first passenger. By
this operation both Debts are paid. The Debt of the conductor to
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412 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
the first passenger, and the Debt of the second passenger to the
conductor, are paid by one operation. The whole transaction is an
Exchange.
Out of these tiny germs is developed the whole vast and compli-
cated system of the Foreign Exchanges.
Three parties and two Debts are thus necessary to an Exchange.
The Exchanges is that branch of Commerce which treats of the
remission and settlement of Debts between parties living in different
places either within or beyond the limits of the same country, and of
the Exchange of the Money of one country for that of another.
The State of the Exchanges between any two places or countries
depends upon two distinct things : —
i. The State of the Moneys of the two places.
2. The State of the Commercial Dealings between the two places.
The State of the Exchanges, which depends on the State of the
Moneys of the two places, is called the Nominal Exchange.
The State of the Exchanges, which depends on the State of
Commercial Dealings between the two places, is called the Real,
or the Commercial Exchange.
On the Nominal Exchange.
For the due understanding of the Exchanges, we may refer our
readers back to the fundamental principles of Bullion and Coin in a
previous article.
Suppose that the Coinages of two countries are made of the same
metal, and the Coinage of one country is taken as the standard,
then the Quantity of the Coin of the other country, which contains
exactly the same Quantity of pure metal, is called the Par of
Exchange between the two countries.
Suppose that the Exchanges between England and France were
estimated in gold. There is, as near as possible, one-fourth more
pure gold in an English sovereign than in a French 20-franc piece.
If the English sovereign were taken as the standard, it would be
equal to 1-25 of a 20-franc piece, and 125 would be the Par of
Exchange between England and France.
The Exchanges between England and France are, however, not
estimated in gold, but in silver. Moreover, the English sovereign
is not exactly 1-25 of a 20-franc gold piece. Accordingly, 25.21
was usually considered as the Par of Exchange between England
and France when gold was fixed at the ratio of z to 15^ to silver,
which ratio is now only maintained by the French Mint being closed
to the free coinage of silver for the public.
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E. ] Exchange 413
There can be no Fixed Par of Exchange between Countries
which use Different Metals as their Legal Standard.
There can only be a Real Par of Exchange between countries
when they use the Same Metal as their Legal Standard
There can be no fixed Par of Exchange between countries which
use different metals, such as gold and silver, for their Legal Standard.
The relative market value of the two metals is constantly varying
from causes entirely beyond the control of any law. It has already
been shown that the value of the coins, when issued in unlimited
quantities, strictly follows the market value of the metals. It is no
more possible to have a fixed price of one in terms of the other,
than to have a fixed legal price of corn or meat or any other com-
modity. If there is to be a fixed price of one in terms of the other,
the coin whose value is to be fixed must be strictly limited in
quantity. Thus, at the present time in France five-franc pieces are
maintained at the ratio of 15^ to 1 to gold, because the French
mints are closed to the free coinage of silver. If silver were coined
in France in unlimited quantities, the value of the five-franc pieces
would fall to the ratio of about 35 to 1 to gold. So in England the
value of shillings is maintained by strictly limiting their quantity.
The artificial value of shillings to gold is 20 to 1, but if shillings
were freely coined, their value would be about 38 or 40 to 1 to gold.
So the Indian Government has recently closed its mints to the
coinage of silver, to prevent the further fall in the value of the
rupee. Every Government which uses gold as the Legal Standard
and silver coin as subsidiary, allows gold to be coined in unlimited
quantities, but restrains the issue of silver within its own discretion.
In 1797, when the Bank of England stopped payment, the House
of Lords appointed a Committee to investigate the subject. The
Committee, among other things, wished to ascertain the Par of
Exchange between London and Hamburg, and they examined
several merchants upon the question. But the merchants were quite
unable to agree among themselves what the true Par of Exchange
between the two places was, and the Committee reported that they
were unable to come to a satisfactory conclusion on the point
There cannot, in the nature of things, be any true or fixed Par of
Exchange between England and any country which uses a Silver
Standard. It is only possible to say that such is the usual Rate of
Exchange between them. Hence, when it is said that 25*21 francs is
the Par of Exchange between England and France, it only means
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414 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
that such was reckoned as the usual Rate of Exchange between
them before the recent great disturbance in the relative value of the
two metals. And even the best authorities differed by several
centimes. And between such countries it is sometimes impossible
to decide certainly which way the Exchange is, unless the difference
exceeds a certain amount.
On the Effects of a Depreciated Coinage on the Exchanges.
Coins may circulate in their own country at their full nominal
value, after they have lost a good deal of their legal weight by wear
and tear, because persons in general are not very rigorous in weigh-
ing every coin they receive.
But when they are exchanged for bullion, or for the coins of a
foreign country, they are always weighed and exchanged weight for
weight. If, therefore, for any reason whatever, the English coins
have become degraded, worn, or clipped, and so lost their proper
weight, they will evidently not buy so much bullion or full-weighted
francs as if they were of their full weight
If English sovereigns were in this depreciated state, they might
perhaps only purchase 24 francs instead of 25*21 francs. This
would be called a Fall in the Foreign Exchanges.
Or, if an English merchant were obliged to pay a Debt of 2,521
francs in Paris, he would have to give more than ;£ioo to purchase
them. This would be called a Rise in the Foreign Exchanges, and
the Exchange would be said to be so much Against England by
the amount of the difference.
When English Coin is used to purchase French Coin, it may be
looked at in two points of view : —
1. A Fixed amount of English Coin may be used to purchase an
Uncertain amount of French Coin.
2. An Uncertain amount of English Coin may be used to
purchase a Fixed amount of French Coin.
In the first point of view, a Fixed amount of depreciated English
Coin will buy a Less amount of French Coin.
In the second point of view, it will require a Greater amount of
depreciated English Coin to purchase a Fixed amount of French
Coin.
Hence) when a Depreciated Coinage is said to produce a Fall in the
Foreign Exchanges, it means that a Fixed amount of English Coin
will purchase a Less amount of Foreign Coin.
When a Depreciated Coinage is said to produce a Rise in the
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E. ] Exchange 415
Foreign Exchanges, it means that it requires a Greater amount of
English Coin to purchase a Fixed amount of Foreign Coin,
A clear understanding of these expressions will prevent any con-
fusion arising when they are used indiscriminately, as they often are
in discussions on the Exchanges. They are not contradictory, as
they might appear to be ; they only refer to two different methods of
estimating the Coinage.
It is evident that the adverse state of the Exchanges will continue
so long as the Depreciation of the Coinage exists, and that a
restoration of the Home Coinage to its proper state will at once
rectify the Exchanges.
It is also evident that a Depreciation of the Coinage by a Debase-
ment of its Purity will produce exactly the same effects, because in
all cases it is the quantity of pure metal which is regarded, and this
is equally diminished by a degraded state of the coinage, or by a
Debasement of its purity.
If the Coinage is in a Depreciated State, to determine whether
the Exchange is Favourable, at Par, or Adverse.
When the English Coinage is at its full legal weight, ;£ioo in
sovereigns will purchase 2521 French silver francs.
Suppose that the Coinage became Depreciated, so that the
Market Price of Bullion rises to £4 $s., then the Market Price of
;£ioo of full-weighted Coin is ^106 iw. i\d.
Suppose that the Exchange on Paris is 23-80, or that ;£ioo of
the current coin will purchase 2380 francs, then ^106 iw. 7 \d.
will purchase 2636-63 francs.
But as the Par at the Mint Price is 2521 francs, it is evident that
the Difference between 2521 francs and 2536-63 francs, or 15-63
francs, is the extent to which the Real Exchange is in favour of
England.
It is also easy to see how much the exchange is depressed,
because ;£ioo ought to purchase 2536-63 francs, whereas they
will only purchase 2380 francs. Consequently, the Exchange is
depressed by 206-63 francs, or the 100 sovereigns are deficient by
that amount of their legal weight, and this will be found to tally
with the Rise of their Market Price above their Mint Price.
Hence a Depreciated Coinage necessarily produces a Rise of the
Market Price of Bullion above the Mint Price, and a Fall in the
Foreign Exchanges below Par.
Because it will require a Greater amount of the Current Coin to
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4i6 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. il
buy a Fixed amount of Bullion, and a Fixed amount of the Current
Coin will buy a Less amount of Foreign Coin.
Thus a Rise in the Market Price of Bullion above the Mint Price,
and a Fall of the Foreign Exchanges below Par, Proves and
Measures the Depreciation of the English Coinage.
Hence we have the following Rules : —
i. Find the Market Price of Bullion in London compared to the
Mint Price,
2. Multiply the Market Price so found by the Rate of Exchange.
Then the Exchange is Favourable, at Par, or Adverse, according
as the result is Above, At, or Below Par.
And the Depression of the Exchange, caused by the Depreciation
of the Coinage, is the Difference between the Sum so expressed in
the Mint and Market Prices, multiplied by the Rate of Exchange.
In the excellent state in which our Coinage now is, the question
of the Nominal Exchange is of little importance. But it is im-
possible to understand the history of the Currency without it, and
it is essential with regard to all Foreign Countries which use an
Inconvertible and Depreciated Paper Money.
On the Real or Commercial Exchange.
We have now to explain the mechanism of the Real or the
Commercial Exchange.
Suppose that A in London is Creditor to B, and Debtor to B1,
both in Edinburgh, in equal amounts, then to settle these Debts it
would be necessary for B in Edinburgh to send the money to A
in London, and for A in London to send an equal amount of
money to B1 in Edinburgh. This would require two transmissions
of money between London and Edinburgh, at some expense.
The business may be settled much more easily and cheaply if A
in London sends to B1, his Creditor in Edinburgh, an Order for the
money upon B, his Debtor in Edinburgh. By this means both
Debts are settled and discharged by B paying over to B1 the money
he owes to A ; that is, by the simple transfer of the money from B
to B1 in the same place, instead of by two transmissions of money
between London and Edinburgh. This order is termed a Bill of
Exchange, and the operation is exactly similar to a person paying
his Creditor by a Cheque on his banker, or the case of the
passengers in the omnibus described above.
Thus an "Exchange," or a Delegation, requires at least three
parties and two Debts.
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E.] Exchange 417
On an Exchange with Four Parties.
The above is the simplest form of an Exchange. But the course
of trade gives rise to much more complicated transactions.
In the above case, A fulfils two characters, or persona. He is
Creditor to one party, and Debtor to another in Edinburgh.
But in the " Exchanges," it more usually happens that there are
four parties.
Suppose that A in London is Creditor to B in Edinburgh, and
that B1 in Edinburgh is Creditor to A1 in London, then to settle
these Debts two transmissions of money between London and
Edinburgh are necessary.
But suppose that A1 in London goes to A and pays him the
money he owes to B1 in Edinburgh, and buys from him the Debt he
has against B in Edinburgh. He then sends this order to his own
Creditor B1 in Edinburgh, then B1 presents the order to B, and
receives from him the money he owes to A1. By this means, both
these Debts are settled by a local transfer in London and in
Edinburgh, and the expense of the transmissions of money between
these places is saved.
When the sum total of the Debts between London and Edinburgh
are exactly equal, they may all be paid and discharged by means of
these "Exchanges," Novations, or Delegations, or local transfers,
without the aid of a single coin.
The Exchanges are then said to be at Par.
On the Time Par of Exchange.
Suppose, however, that the Debts between London and Edinburgh
are not equal, and that Edinburgh has to send more money to
London than it has to receive from London, then the Demand for
Bills is greater than the Supply.
But as it is cheaper to send a Bill than the money, those who are
bound to send Money will bid against each other for the Bills in the
market, as for any other merchandise, and the Price of Bills will rise,
or a Premium will have to be paid for a Bill on London.
Thus, when Bills are at a Premium on any place, it shows that
the Exchanges at that place are adverse.
London is the great centre of Commerce. It is the seat of
Government, to which the revenue is remitted from all parts of the
country. The great families from all parts of the country go to
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41 8 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
reside there, and their revenues must be remitted to them there.
Hence there is always a much greater amount of Money seeking
to flow to London from the country than the contrary. Conse-
quently, the Demand for Bills on London in the country is always
greater than the supply, and, therefore, Inland Bills on London are
always at a Premium.
This Premium is computed by Time. It is an essential part of
the business of a banker to give these Bills. Within a comparatively
recent time, a Bill on London at sight was charged 40 days' interest
in Edinburgh. But since the introduction of railways, this has
been reduced to four days. If a person in Edinburgh wants a
Bill at sight on London, he has to pay ix. per cent, or four days'
interest.
This is termed the Time Par of Exchange between Edinburgh
and London. There is a similar Premium, or Time Par of Exchange,
between all other towns in the country and London. This is termed
Inland Exchange.
It appears from this that when in any place the Demand for
Bills on any other place is greater than the Supply, and, there-
fore, when Bills rise to a Premium, the Exchanges are Adverse
to the first place, because it has more Money to pay than to
receive.
But when the Supply of Bills is greater than the Demand, the
reverse takes place. Bills fall to a Discount, and the Exchange is
favourable to the first place, because it has more Money to receive
than to pay.
It must be observed, however, that the interests of Buyers and
Sellers of Bills are opposite. If the Exchange is unfavourable to
the Buyers of Bills, or those who wish to send Money, it is equally
favourable to the Sellers of Bills, or those who have to receive
Money.
Buyers of Bills are also termed Remitters, and Sellers of Bills
are also termed Drawers.
On Foreign Exchange.
The principles of Foreign Exchange are exactly the same as those
of Inland Exchange. But there is very considerably more compli-
cation in the details, because different nations use different metals as
their Legal Standard, and different coinages.
In Exchange between two foreign places and of different moneys,
the money of one place is always taken as Fixed, and the Exchange
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E.] Exchange 419
is always reckoned in the Variable Quantity of the money of the
other place which is given for it.
The former is termed the Fixed, or Certain, Price, and the
latter the Variable, or Uncertain, Price.
When any place is taken as the centre, if the money of the
place is the Fixed Price, it is said to Receive the Variable
Price.
But when the money of the place is the Variable Price, it is said
to Give the Variable Price.
The Foreign Exchanges are enormously complicated, because
every centre of Exchange Receives the Variable Price from some
places, and Gives the Variable Price to others.
Between London and Paris the £ is the Fixed Price, and the
Exchange is reckoned in the variable amount of francs and centimes
given for it
On the contrary, between London and Spain the dollar is the
Fixed Price, and the Exchange is reckoned in the variable number
of pence given for it
Thus London receives from Paris so many francs and centimes
for the £1 ; on the contrary, London gives to Spain so many pence
for the dollar.
In the quotations of the Rates of Exchange, it is usual to omit
the Fixed Price and to state only the Variable Price, and then that
sum is termed the Rate or Course of Exchange.
London Receives the Variable Price from Amsterdam, Austria,
Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland.
London Gives the Variable Price to Calcutta, Gibraltar, Lisbon,
New York, Rio Janeiro, St. Petersburg, and Spain.
On the Effects of the Exchanges being Favourable or
Adverse to London,
As a general rule, when the Exchanges are favourable to London,
Foreign Bills fall to a Discount, because London has more money
to receive than to pay.
When the Exchanges are Adverse to London, Foreign Bills
rise to a Premium, because London has more money to pay than
to receive.
But in consequence of the Opposite modes of reckoning the
Exchanges in London on different countries, the very same effects
will have to be expressed in Opposite terms, according as London
Receives or Gives the Variable Price.
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420 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Exchange between Loadon and Places from which it Receiues
the Variable Price.
If the Exchange of London on Paris is favourable to London,
and, therefore, the supply of Bills greater than the demand, Bills
fall to a Discount, and consequently the Rate of Exchange will rise
above Par — that is, £1 will purchase More francs and centimes
than the Par.
But if the Exchange is against London, the demand for bills is
greater than the supply, and Bills will rise to a Premium, and, there-
fore, £1 will purchase Fewer francs and centimes, and the
Exchange will fall below Par.
And the same is true with respect to all other places from which
London Receives the Variable Price.
Exchange bettveen London and Places to which London Gives
the Variable Price.
But of course the contrary takes place between London and all
places to which it Gives the Variable Price.
Thus between London and Spain, when Exchange is favourable
to London, she will give Fewer pence to purchase the dollar, or
the Exchange will fall below Par.
If the Exchange between London and Spain is against London,
Bills rise to a Premium, and London must Give more pence to
purchase the Dollar, or the Exchange will rise above Par.
And the same is manifestly true with respect to all places to
which London Gives the Variable Price.
Hence, when the Rate of Exchange between London and any
other place varies from Par, in order to determine whether the
Exchange is Favourable or Adverse, it is always necessary to con-
sider whether London Gives the Variable Price to, or Receives the
Variable Price from, that place.
The general principle, of course, is always true. When the
Exchange is favourable to London, Bills in London on other places
fall to a Discount ; when the Exchange is adverse to London, Bills
on other places rise to a Premium ; but as London Gives the Vari-
able Prices to some places and Receives it from others, the same
real state of the Exchanges requires opposite expressions in these
opposite cases. But it is exactly the same with every centre of
Exchanges ; they each give the Variable Price to some places, and
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E. ] Exchange 42 1
Receive it from others. Hence the calculation of the Exchanges is
a matter of the most extreme complexity, and requires no little of
the genius' of the calculating boy.
On the Limits of the Variations of the Exchanges.
When the debts to be exchanged between any two places are
equal, the demand and supply of Bills at each place are exactly
equal, and the Exchanges are at Par, because there is no money to
be remitted from either side.
But if one place has to send more money than it has to
receive, the demand for Bills will cause them to rise to a
Premium.
It is the duty of the debtor to place the money on the spot where
the debt is due at his own risk and expense. Consequently, as it is
cheaper to send a Bill by post than to send the cash, with all the
expenses of freight and insurance to pay, he would rather give a
little more than the nominal value of the Bill, in order to save the
expense of sending the specie.
But he will not give more than the cost of sending the specie,
because if the price of the Bills were higher than that, it would be
cheaper to send the specie itself.
Hence the cost of sending the specie is a Superior Limit to
the variations of the real Exchange.
But the reverse case may also happen; the supply of Bills in
London on Paris may exceed the demand. In that case London
has more money to receive than to pay. The price of Bills will
consequently fall below Par. But, for the same reason, the cost of
transmitting specie will be an Inferior Limit, below which the
price will not fall.
Hence the Limits of the Variations of the Exchanges are
confined to Twice the cost of sending specie between the two
places.
The Limits of the Variations of the Exchanges between two
places are termed Specie Points, because when the Rates of
Exchange have a tendency to exceed them, specie may be expected
to flow in or out, as the case may be.
It must be observed, however, that these Limits of the Variations
of the Exchanges only apply to Bills payable at once, and to con-
siderable periods. During short periods, and for Bills which have
some time to run, the fluctuations of the Exchange may, from a
variety of causes, greatly exceed these limits.
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422 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
On Inconvertible Paper Money.
The above considerations affect coinages of gold and silver. But
in modern times a new species of money has come into use, and
nearly every country has had recourse to it in times of public diffi-
culty, and that is Paper Money.
While Paper is convertible — *>., while the holder of it can compel
the issuer to give gold for it on demand — it is evident that it cannot
circulate at a discount, because, if it fell to a discount, the holders
would at once go and demand gold for it.
In quiet and ordinary times a bank can keep in circulation several
times the amount of the specie it is obliged to retain in Notes or
Bank Credits. As has been shown, banking profits can only be
made by creating and issuing Credit in excess of specie. And as
long as there is public confidence that the issuers can redeem this
Credit on demand, the Credit circulates and produces in all respects
identically the same effects as an equal amount of gold.
But suppose that some great calamity happens, such as a fear of
invasion, this confidence will vanish, and numerous persons would
demand payment of their Credits in gold.
Under the circumstances, and with the enormous masses of Paper
in circulation in modern times, every country in Europe has been
obliged to suspend payments in cash, and to give an artificial value
to the Paper by receiving it in payment of taxes, &c, at its nominal
value in specie, and to make it legal tender.
When this is done, Paper Money becomes in all respects equiva-
lent to a new standard, just as much as gold and silver, and its value
is affected by exactly the same principles as affect the value of gold
and silver.
Under the old system of attempting to fix the value of gold rela-
tively to silver, there was no power of convertibility of one metal
into the other, similar to the convertibility of the Bank-note. If
silver fell to a discount as compared with gold, no one could demand
as a right to have his silver exchanged for gold ; consequently the
inevitable result of a considerable change in quantity or the demand
for either metal was a change in their relative value. In 1794 gold
rose to 84J., if purchased with silver bullion ; but if the silver coin
had been convertible into gold, like a Bank-note, this difference
could never have arisen, any more than a Bank-note, convertible
into coin, can circulate at a discount as compared with coin.
Now Paper Money, when issued as a substantive coinage, follows
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E.] Exchange 423
exactly the same rules. If only the usual quantity of it be issued —
i.e., no greater quantity than would have been issued if it were
convertible into gold — it will continue to circulate at its Par value.
But if these issues be increased in quantity, and if the natural
corrective of excessive issues be taken away, namely, payment in
cash on demand, exactly the same result follows as attends a greatly
increased quantity of silver, and it falls to a Discount.
Lord King's Law of Paper Money.
When either of two metals used as a coinage becomes greatly
increased in quantity, it becomes diminished in value as compared
with the other ; and if gold and silver, not being convertible, are
compelled by law to circulate at a fixed ratio, in virtue of Gresham's
law, the one which is underrated invariably disappears from circula-
tion ; it is either hoarded or it is exported to foreign countries, where
it may exchange for its true value.
When one metal diminishes in value with respect to the other, it
is not Depreciation, because it has a general value in the market of
the world. But when Paper is used, which has no general value in
the market of the world, but merely a local value, and it becomes
excessive, it cannot be exported, because it has only a local, and not
a general, value. It falls to a Discount as compared with coin, or
coin is said to rise to a premium, and in this case it is Deprecia-
tion! because it professes to be equal in value to coin, and it is
not so.
If it is attempted to maintain a fixed ratio between Paper Money
and Coin after the Paper has fallen to a Discount, exactly the same
result follows as takes place when Coin of inferior Value is attempted
to be made to circulate at par with Coin of superior Value. The
underrated Coin is all hoarded or exported. It entirely disappears
from circulation, and nothing but Paper remains. As the quantity
of Paper increases, it falls in Value. All Prices rise, the Foreign
Exchanges fall, and all the Foreign Trade of the country is deranged.
A few years after the Bank of England suspended Cash Payments
in 1797, the Price of Bullion rose, and the Foreign Exchanges fell,
deranging the whole course of the Foreign Trade. Some able
writers, the most conspicuous of whom was Lord King, maintained
that this was due to the Depreciation of the Bank-note. Strong
interests contested this doctrine. The Bank contested it because
it found it profitable to issue as much Paper as possible ; merchants
contested it because they, were afraid that their accommodation
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424 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
would be restricted. After a short time, the value of the Bank-note
improved, and the question slumbered.
In 1809 the same phenomena recurred, in a much more aggra-
vated form, and gave rise to the appointment of the celebrated
Bullion Committee. All the witnesses before this Committee,
except one, maintained that it was not the Bank-note which had
fallen, but Gold which had risen.
The Report, drawn up by Huskisson, Horner, and Thornton,
entirely disproved this assertion, and showed that the Rise of the
Market Price of Gold, and the Fall in the Foreign Exchanges, was
entirely due to the Depreciation of the Bank-note from Excessive
quantity, and it recommended a diminution of its Issues, so as to
restore the value of the Bank-note.
Resolutions in accordance with the Report were moved by
Horner. It was proved that there were two prices in common
use, a Paper Price and a Money Price, and that a jQi Bank-note
and 7-r. were commonly given for a guinea. Nevertheless, under
the influence of party passion, the House of Commons voted that,
in public estimation, a guinea was equal to a jQi Bank-note and is.,
or that 27 = 21. Freed by this vote from all control, the Bank
made more extravagant issues than ever, so that in 18 15 the Bank-
note was only worth 14s. 6d
However, the doctrines of the Bullion Report gradually convinced
the Mercantile world, and in 18 19 they had scarcely an opponent.
Lord King's Law of Paper Money is this : —
A Rise of the Paper, or Market, Price of Bullion above the Mint
Price, and a Pall of the Foreign Exchange below the Limits of the
Real Exchange, is the Proof and the Measure of the Depreciation of
the Paper Money.
This principle is so universally admitted now, and is so perfectly
evident, that there is no use in wasting more words to prove it.
It shows that Paper Money must always be restrained within
certain strict Limits to maintain a Par Value with Gold. But if
this be duly done, a certain amount of Inconvertible Paper Money
may circulate along with specie at Par.
If the Bank of England had taken proper measures for con-
trolling and limiting its Issues, its Notes might have circulated at
Par with Gold.
In 1797, when the Bank Suspension Act was passed, the Banks
in Edinburgh held a public meeting, attended by the authorities of
the town, and gave notice that they should henceforth refuse to cash
their Notes. This refusal was continued during the whole of the
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war. But from the judicious measures taken, their Notes continued
to circulate at Par with Bank of England paper.
In 1874 the Inconvertible Notes of the Bank of France circulated
at Par with Coin, because they were carefully limited.
The doctrines of the Bullion Report lay down the principles by
which all Credit and Paper Currency, whether Convertible or Incon-
vertible, must be regulated, namely, a strict attention to the Price of
Bullion, and the State of the Foreign Exchanges.
The demonstration of the Bullion Report was, in course of
time, universally accepted by the Banking and Mercantile world.
The only difficulty left unsolved was the Practical Measures to be
adopted to carry it into effect
However, after several unsuccessful attempts to discover the true
method of giving effect to this doctrine, this problem has now been
successfully solved, as will be shown further on, and thus the Theory
of the Paper Currency is now complete.
Effect of the Restoration of the Coinage on the Exchanges,
In the preceding remarks on the Nominal Exchange, it has been
shown that the depreciation or degradation of the Coin in which
the Exchanges are reckoned, must necessarily derange all the
Exchanges of the country, and that a Restoration of the Coin to
its due legal state will be sufficient to rectify the Exchanges.
But the state of any other portion of the Currency, or Circulating
Medium, than the one in which the Exchanges are reckoned, will
not affect them.
In the early part of the reign of William III., the Silver Coinage,
in which the Exchanges were then reckoned, had fallen into a most
disgraceful state from clipping and other causes. On collecting
bags of coin from different parts of the country, it was found. that
their weight scarcely exceeded one-half of their legal weight The
Exchanges were entirely disordered, and the commerce of the
country was thrown into utter confusion. In the beginning of 1696,
the great work of the restoration of the Coinage was begun, and by
July the new Coin began to be issued in considerable quantities,
and the Exchanges were immediately rectified.
Bank of England Notes at this period were at a heavy
discount, because the Bank had suspended payments in cash.
But that produced no effect on the Exchanges, because they
were not reckoned in Bank-notes, but exclusively in the Silver
Coin.
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426 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II
FARM.
The word Farm is an example of those words in English which
in Reality mean a Right, but which in common parlance have been
corrupted to mean a Thing.
Most persons think that a Farm means a piece of land, and that
a good farmer is a good agriculturist. This, however, is an error.
The word Farm, like Estate, means a Lease. It is called Farm,
from fimmsy fixed ; because the sum to be paid for the use of
the land is fixed. Whenever a person takes a lease of anything
capable of yielding profits, and upon agreeing to pay a fixed sum
is allowed to appropriate all the remaining profit to himself, it is
termed a Farm. Thus in many countries it used to be the custom
to Farm the Taxes. The word Farm, then, like Estate, really
means a Lease, and is simply a Right.
THE FUNDS.
The nature of the Funds has always been an inscrutable
enigma to those persons who adhere to the exploded concept of
Economics as the "Production, Distribution, and Consumption of
Wealth."
If a person had ^500,000, as it is termed, in the Funds, he
would be termed a " Wealthy " person. But when the Funds them-
selves are termed "Wealth," many persons are scandalised at the
idea that Public Debts are Public Wealth.
It is obvious that the Public Debts, or Public Credit, depends
upon exactly the same principles as the Credit of private persons,
which are fully explained under the article Credit. All the
difficulties and perplexities of the subject proceed from having
adopted an erroneous concept of Economics, and not having
thought out and settled the meaning of its fundamental terms, as
has been done in all other Sciences, and from ignorance of the
elementary principles of Mercantile Law.
By adopting the concept of Economics as the Science of
Exchanges, the whole subject becomes perfectly clear and
simple.
Before, however, we proceed to the exposition of the subject,
it will be expedient to clear away the errors with which it is
infested.
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F.] The Funds 427
Error of Mill and others regarding the Nature of the Funds.
It is first of all necessary to point out a most serious and vital
error which many persons hold regarding the Nature of the Funds.
Thus Mill says (Preliminary Remarks), "This leads to an im-
portant distinction in the meaning of the word Wealth, as applied
to the possessions of the individual, and to those of a nation, or
of mankind. In the Wealth of mankind, nothing is included which
does not of itself answer some purpose of use or pleasure (?). To
an individual, anything is Wealth which, though useless in itself,
enables him to claim from others a part of their stock of things
useful or pleasant.
"Take, for instance, a mortgage of one thousand pounds on a
landed estate. This is Wealth to the person to whom it brings
a revenue, and who could, perhaps, sell it in the market for the
full amount of the debt But it is not Wealth to the country;
if the engagement were annulled, the country would be neither
poorer nor richer. The mortgagee would have lost one thousand
pounds, and the owner of the land would have gained it. Speaking
nationally, the mortgage was not itself Wealth, but merely gave
A a claim to a portion of the wealth of B. It was wealth to A,
and wealth which he could transfer to a third person; but what
he so transferred was in fact a joint ownership, to the extent of
a thousand pounds, in the land of which B was nominally the
sole proprietor.
" The position of the fund-holders, or holders of the public debt,
is similar. They are mortgagees on the general Wealth of the
country. The cancelling of the debt would be no destruction of
Wealth, but a transfer of it: a wrongful abstraction of Wealth
from certain members of the community for the benefit of the
Government or the taxpayers. Funded property, therefore, cannot be
counted as part of the national Wealth. This is not always borne
in mind by the dealers in statistical calculations. For example,
in the estimating the gross incomes of the country, founded on the
proceeds of the Income Tax, incomes derived from the funds are
not always excluded, though the taxpayers are assessed on their
whole nominal income, without being permitted to deduct from
it the portion levied from them in taxation to form the income
of the fund-holder. In the calculation, therefore, one portion of
the general income of the country is counted twice over, and the
aggregate amount made to appear greater than it is by about thirty
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428 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
millions. A country, however, may include in its wealth all stock
held by its citizens in the funds of foreign countries, and other debts
due to them from abroad. But even this is only Wealth to them
by being a part ownership in Wealth held by others. It forms no
part of the collective Wealth of the human race. It is an element
in the distribution, but not in the composition of the general
Wealth."
How does the distinction between public and private wealth, in
the above passage, consist with Mill's general definition of Wealth—
as Anything which has Purchasing Power ?
The fallacy that the Funds are similar to a mortgage, appears
conspicuously in another writer, Mr. Capps, who gained a prize of
^200, put at the disposal of the Society of Arts, for the best essay
on the mode of liquidating the National Debt.
He says — "There are two antagonistic and conflicting fallacies
respecting the National Debt, which are very prevalent. The first
is, that funded property forms as much a portion of the wealth of the
country, and is therefore to be reckoned among its assets, as lands,
houses, or any other description of tangible property. The second,
which is precisely the opposite of the former, is that the Debt is a
subtraction, or a deduction from the wealth of the country ; that the
country is so much the poorer for it. Neither the one nor the
other is correct ; for the truth is, that the country, with the trifling
exception which we shall hereafter name, is neither the richer nor
the poorer for the existence of the debt, and that consequently, both
the opinions we have mentioned as being prevalent, are erroneous :
which we shall now proceed to show.
"With regard to the first, we have seen estimates made of the
total wealth of the country, in which, after the enumeration as a
portion of the wealth of the nation, of lands, houses, raw materials,
and manufactured products of all descriptions, there has been an
item inserted of ' Funded Property,' which has been considered as of
itself an actual property, separate from, and an addition to, all other
wealth. Now the debt, or the Funds, though a property to the
parties who hold them, are not so to the nation as a whole ; for they
are only a Mortgage upon the rest of the property of the country ; and
by just so much as they are the property of the holders, they are an
incumbrance and a diminution of the value of the things so
mortgaged or encumbered.
"It is precisely a parallel case to the following — A is worth
;£ 10,000, in the shape of an estate of that value. B is worth
^5,000 in money. A mortgages his estate to B for ,£5,000, and
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F.] The Funds 429
spends the money unproductively. [Why so ? Suppose he spends
the money productively in improving his estate?] Let now a
valuation be made of the property of A and B jointly, and we shall
find that the amount of their united wealth is just the value of the
estate and nothing more. The estate is worth ;£i 0,000, ,£5,000 of
which belongs to B as mortgagee, and £5,000 is the value of the
equity of redemption to A as mortgagor. The mortgage in no way
adds to the value of the estate, and though it is a property to B as
mortgagee, it is to the same extent a diminution to A of the value of
the estate.
" It is the same with the National Debt. The whole country and
its productions are mortgaged to the fund-holders to the extent of about
one-seventh of their value; and though such funds form a property to
the holders of them, they are only so in the character of a mortgage,
which reduces the value of the property mortgaged to its proprietor,
by just the amount of the mortgage. In taking, therefore, any
account, or making any valuation of the total wealth of the country,
funded property must not be put down as an item, unless you make
a corresponding deduction on the other hand from the value of the
property of which it forms a mortgage. "
We have quoted these passages at somewhat wearisome length, in
order that we may not be supposed to have misrepresented the
writers. They contain a complete series of misconceptions and
errors upon a subject of great importance, and which involves
several of the fundamental concepts of Economics.
Error of considering the Funds as a Mortgage on the Property
of the country.
To consider the Funds as a mortgage on the lands and property
of the country, as Mill, Mr. Capps, and many other writers do, is a
gross and palpable error, which only arises from ignorance of the
most elementary principles of Mercantile Law.
A mortgage is a formal deed, conveying rights to certain property.
When were the fundholders ever put by formal deed of conveyance
into possession of the country and its products? Let us see the
Act of Parliament which did so. Let this wonderful deed of
conveyance be produced. Until it is produced, it is clear that the
Funds are not a mortgage on the property of the country.
As a matter of pure law, the Funds and a Mortgage deed belong
to two totally different classes of property.
In English law, when a person borrows money on' mortgage, he
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430 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
actually sells the land or other property to the mortgagee in
exchange for the money. The mortgage deed is a title to that
specific land, or property, and to no other. The mortgagee becomes
the actual legal owner of the land; but he is bound to resell, or
reconvey, the land to the mortgagor upon his repaying the money.
Hence a mortgage deed is not separate property from the land ; it is
but one property with it, just as Bills of Lading and Dock Warrants
are titles to specific goods, and are one property with them.
Mortgage deeds and Bills of Lading are not Credit^ they are Jura
in re.
But the Funds are pure Rights of Action against the State as
a Persona ; or Rights of Action to demand from it a series of future
payments in exchange for money, which the Fund-holders have lent
or sold to the State. They are simply a Bill of Exchange payable
by instalments for ever.
When a merchant gives a Bill of Exchange in exchange for goods,
it is not a right or title to any Specific money, it is simply an
abstract Right of Action against his person ; he merely engages that
he shall be ready to pay the bill when it falls due, and therefore it
is called a Credit.
So when the State borrows money, and gives the Right to demand
a series of future payments for it in exchange, which are called
the Funds, they are not Rights to any specific lands, products,
or money, they are merely Rights against the State in its corporate
capacity ; and they are intended to be paid out of its future income ;
just as a merchant pays his acceptances out of his future income.
They are therefore termed Public Credit.
To suppose that the Funds are a mortgage on the land and its
products, is as gross an error in Mercantile Law, as it is to suppose
that when a merchant accepts a Bill of Exchange he thereby grants
a mortgage on his lands or house.
The Funds, like Bills of Exchange, are Credit ; they both belong
to that class of property termed Jura in personam.
Mill is also grossly in error when he says that the citizens of one
country may include in their wealth the stocks held by them in
foreign countries, and other debts due to them from abroad ; but
that it forms no part of the collective wealth of the human race;
because it is only wealth to them, as part ownership in wealth held
by others.
This involves the very common but gross error that a Creditor has
any Right or Property in the possessions of his debtor. But every
Jurist in the world has pointed out that a Creditor has no Right or
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F.] The Funds 431
Property in the possessions of his debtor, as we have shown fully.
(Credit, Debt) A Debtor's property is absolutely his own ; all
that his Creditor has, is an abstract Right of Action against his
person to compel him to exchange some of his property to buy up
the Right of Action against himself. The Right of Action and the
Debtor's property, are therefore separate and distinct articles of
property or Economic Quantities, and there is no joint ownership
whatever. It is the very first thing which is inculcated on every
student of Mercantile Law, that a Bill of Exchange is not the title to
any specific money. And it is into this elementary blunder that
Scholastic Economists, such as Mill, Capps, Stanley Jevons,
Roscher, Marshall, and many others have fallen, which shows that
they are ignorant of the rudimentary principles of Credit.
We have shown that the Funds are a class of property known by
the name of Choses4n-action (Chose in action). Jurists of all
nations include Abstract Rights of all sorts, such as the Funds, Bills
of Exchange, &c, as Wealth, Goods, Chattels, Vendible Com-
modities, Merchandise; and Pothier carefully warned his readers
against supposing that a Creditor has any property or right in the
possessions of his Debtor.
All this notion, therefore, of a Creditor having a joint ownership
in the possessions of his Debtor, which was originated, as far as we
are aware, by Mill and Capps, and followed up by so many other
Scholastic Economists, is a pure delusion, arising from their own
ignorance of law, and persons who commit such grotesque blunders
are not qualified to write on Economics at all.
Are the Incomes of the Fund-holders to be reckoned separately in
the General Income of the country ?
Mill then alleges that it is a statistical error to count the incomes
of the fund-holders as independent incomes, in the general income
of the country ; as they are already paid by the taxpayers ; and that
to count them as separate incomes is to count the same sum twice
over.
Now, if this doctrine is true— if it is a theoretical error of
statisticians to count the incomes of the fund-holders as separate
incomes, in the general income of the country; it is equally a
practical error in the Chancellor of the Exchequer to charge the
fund-holders with income tax ; for that is to tax incomes twice over ;
but by taxing them, it is very evident that he considers them as
separate incomes.
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432 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Considering the reputation that Mill formerly enjoyed as an
Economist, though it is now utterly exploded among all intelligent
persons, it is somewhat surprising that this doctrine, which is so
comfortable for the fund-holders, never seems to have attracted
their attention. If it is true, why do not the fund-holders in a body
memorialise the Chancellor of the Exchequer to exempt them from
the Income Tax, on the plea that their incomes have already been
taxed in the general income of the country? For if it is a statistical
error to count the same sum twice over in the general income of
the country, it is equally a practical error to tax the same income
twice over.
And if an obdurate Chancellor of the Exchequer turned a deaf
ear to their memorial, why they should not take measures to have
the question tried in a Court of Law? And then the Judges would
read them a lesson which would soon clarify their ideas as to the
nature of the Funds.
The doctrine is no doubt somewhat specious, and requires in-
vestigation; but we shall find that in this case, as in so many
others, Mill asserts a dogma which hits a great many other cases
besides the one he has in view.
If the argument is true that the incomes of the Fund-holders
must be excluded from the general income of the country because
they are already paid by the taxpayers, it applies to a great many
other cases ; because many other incomes are paid out of the taxes
of the country, and yet are charged with Income Tax.
i. — The Crown. The Civil List of the Crown is paid out of
the taxes of the country; therefore it is not a separate income;
and therefore, according to Mill, the Sovereign should pay no
Income Tax.
2.— The Naval and Military Forces. The payment of all
seamen and soldiers is paid out of the taxes of the country ; there-
fore they are not separate incomes; therefore, according to Mill,
they ought not to pay Income Tax.
3. — The Civil Service. The whole of the salaries of the
Civil Service, from the Prime Minister and the Lord Chancellor
down to the humblest policeman, are paid out of the taxes and
rates; therefore their incomes are not separate incomes; and
therefore, according to Mill, they ought not to pay Income
Tax.
If Mill's argument is true, the incomes of all these persons must
be excluded from the catalogue of the national income, because
they all stand on the same footing as the incomes of the
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F.] The Funds 433
Fundholders— they are all paid out of the taxes of the country;
and for the same reason they ought not to pay Income Tax.
Are believers in Mill prepared to accept these conclusions? If
his argument is true, how can they escape from them ?
But if Mill's argument is true, it must be applied to many other
cases besides those of persons who receive continuous salaries for
rendering continuous services.
Many persons do it a temporary service, and are paid out of
the taxes of the country. If Mill's argument is true, the sums paid
by the State for these services are not separate incomes from the
general income, because they are all paid out of the taxes of the
country; and therefore, according to Mill, they ought not to pay
Income Tax.
The Government frequently contracts with private firms to do
work for the State : with shipbuilders, to build ironclads or guns ;
with contractors, to supply clothing, arms, beef, pork, rum, and
other stores of all sorts ; also with private firms, for building the
public offices, barracks, &c.
All these contractors are paid out of the taxes of the country.
If Mill's argument is true, the sums paid to these contractors
ought not to be counted in Jheir incomes, because they are paid out
of the taxes of the country ; and the contractors ought not to be
charged Income Tax on their profits made out of these contracts.
Are believers in Mill prepared to accept these conclusions? If
his argument is true, how can they escape from them ?
But if Mill's argument is true, it must be greatly extended; for
many persons derive their incomes from other persons, and yet
they both pay Income Tax.
A great nobleman has an income of perhaps ;£ 100,000 a year.
He keeps a French cook at a salary of, perhaps, ^300 a year ; a
Scotch gardener at ^250 a year ; and a retinue of other domestics.
Now, it is evident that the incomes of all his employks and
domestics come out of my lord's income ; and yet they are each
reckoned separately in the income of the country, and my lord
pays Income Tax on his income, and each of his employes whose
salary is above the limit pays Income Tax on his income.
In short, if Mill's argument is true, the salary of no person
whatever who is in the employment or service of any other person,
single or corporate, ought to be counted as a separate income,
and he ought not to be taxed for it
Are believers in Mill prepared to accept these conclusions? If
his argument is true, how can they escape from them ?
2 F
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434 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Every Person's Income is paid out of the Income of Someone else.
But to bring the matter to a conclusion, it is easy to show that
the income of every trade, business, and profession whatever is
paid in succession out of the general income of the country.
The doctrine, thus stated abruptly, may seem like a paradox.
Nevertheless, a very slight explanation, with the assistance of the
fundamental truths of modern Economics, will very soon unravel
the paradox. And it is contained in the observation of Smith, that
the same pieces of money pay everyone's income in succession.
It has been shown that one of the great advances in Economics
made by Smith and Condillac was that, in an exchange, both sides
gain.
The proposition that we have stated, that every person's income
comes out of the income of someone else, is the necessary con-
sequence of Smith's observation that the same pieces of money
pay everyone's income in succession, and that, in an exchange,
both sides gain.
Let us take a few examples.
It is obviously true of all professional men. Where do the
incomes of lawyers and medical men come from ? Evidently from
the incomes of their clients and patients. Where do the incomes
of actors and musical performers come from ? Evidently from the
incomes of their audiences. And the incomes of all these persons
are justly reckoned separately in the general income of the country.
Owners of land devote their labour and capital to produce corn
and cattle and herds, because they know that the public want to
be clothed and fed, and they make an income by so doing. And
where does their income come from ? Evidently from the incomes
of the persons who want to be clothed and fed.
Merchants bestow their labour and capital in importing foreign
commodities into the country, and by so doing they make an
income. And where does their income come from? Evidently
from the incomes of the persons who want their commodities.
Traders bestow their labour and capital in distributing the
commodities produced by manufacturers, or imported by foreign
merchants; and by so doing they make an income. And where
does their income come from? Evidently from the incomes of
their customers.
Landholders having earned an income by selling corn and cattle,
expend their income on their employes, or butchers, bakers, tailors,
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F.] The Funds 435
lawyers, doctors, and public amusements, and educating their
children.
Merchants having earned an income by importing or exporting
commodities, as the case may be, expend their income on their
clerks and servants, or educating their children; upon butchers,
bakers, tailors, wine merchants, lawyers, doctors, aud places of
public amusement.
Lawyers, doctors, engineers, actors, &c, having earned an income
from their clients and patients, expend that income upon educating
their children, upon butchers, bakers, tailors, &c, and public
amusements.
Traders in a similar way having earned an income by distributing
commodities, expend that income in a similar way.
And this mechanism is true of all occupations and trades In
succession. In fact, the whole mechanism of society is a series
of exchanges ; and in all exchanges there is profit.
Each party in the exchange earns an income, and he pays
Income Tax on that.
Contractors earn an income from private persons by doing them
services — by building ships, houses, factories, &c. ; and they pay
Income Tax on their profits. Contractors do the State services
by building ships, guns, public offices, barracks, and in innumerable
other ways; they earn an income by so doing, just in the same
way as by doing a similar service to private persons ; and therefore
they pay Income Tax on their profits, equally in one case as in
the other.
If Mill's doctrine were true, a lawyer who earns an income by
fees from private persons should pay Income Tax; but a judge
who earns an income by performing judicial services to the State,
and receives a salary for so doing out of the taxes, should pay
no Income Tax.
But no Chancellor of the Exchequer or Court of Law would
listen to such an argument for a moment.
Mill's argument, therefore, is entirely erroneous as applied to
the fund-holders and all the preceding cases.
The case where it does apply is where a father makes his son
an allowance to keep him at college. In this case the youth does
nothing to earn an income ; it is a pure gratuity ; it comes out of
his father's income, who receives no service in exchange for it.
Such an allowance is no more to be reckoned as part of the income
of the country, than the sum spent by a father in maintaining his
children at home is part of the income of the country.
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436 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Suppose, again, a father has a son in the Guards, and finding
that his pay is not sufficient to enable him to maintain himself
suitably to his position in society, makes him an allowance. Then
the pay he receives from the State is part of the income of the
country, because it is earned in exchange for a service done. The
allowance he receives from his father is not part of the income
of the country; it is mere expenditure on the part of the father.
Accordingly, the officer pays Income Tax on his pay, given for
services done to the State; but not on the allowance he receives
from his father.
So when a person makes an allowance to his poor relations, they
pay no Income Tax on the sum so received in charity.
So the sums received as salary by the employes of a great noble-
man are part of the general income of the country, because they
are given in exchange for services done; so of contractors who
do work for the public service, they receive remuneration for
services done to the State ; so the judges and other officials, civil
and military, they all receive salaries in exchange for services done
to the State. All these are independent incomes, and therefore
they are all charged with Income Tax.
So the Fund-holders receive an income in exchange for a service
done to the State; and accordingly their income is part of the
general income of the country, just as if they had lent their money
to private persons ; and, therefore, they are justly charged with
Income Tax.
Mill's reason for saying that the Funds are Not part of the
National Wealth.
Mill says — " The cancelling of the debt would be no destruction
of Wealth, but a transfer of it ; a wrongful transfer of it from certain
members of the community for the profit of the Government, or
of the taxpayers. Funded property, therefore, cannot be counted as
part of the National Wealth."
This seems a most extraordinary conclusion. A transfer of
wealth is, in no case that we can imagine, the destruction of it But
Mill says, that because the transfer of it is not the destruction of it,
therefore it is not to be counted as part of the national wealth.
A highwayman knocks down a traveller and robs him of his
watch and money. Now this is only a wrongful transfer of the watch
and money ; it is not a destruction of them ; therefore, according to
Mill, the watch and money form no part of the national wealth !
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F.] The Funds 437
A servant robs his master; that is only a transfer of the thing
stolen ; therefore^ according to Mill, the thing stolen forms no part
of the national wealth 1
We wonder what kind of syllogism leads to such a conclusion ?
There is no doubt a considerable degree of subtlety about the
question, but most assuredly Mill's argument throws no light upon
it.
On the true Nature of the Funds.
Having now cleared away these errors and misconceptions, we
shall now explain the true Nature of the Funds.
It has been shown by Demosthenes, Melon, Dutot, Adam Smith,
J. B. Say, Mill, and many other writers, that Personal Credit is
Wealth — because it is Purchasing Power ; and that the Credit of our
Bankers and Merchants is National Wealth.
It has also been shown that the State, in its corporate capacity, is
a Persona, quite independent of its individual citizens. That it
can buy and sell and exchange in that capacity exactly like a private
person ; and that with its own citizens as well as with any one else ;
just as a public company can deal with its own shareholders.
It has also been shown that an Annuity is an Economic Quantity,
quite separate and independent of the sums of money actually paid ;
and that it can be bought and sold quite independently of them,
just like any material chattel
It has also been shown that every sum of Money is equivalent to
an Annuity, either perpetual or limited; consequently that an
Annuity may be sold for Money ; i.e., that they are each exchange-
able quantities, and may be exchanged like any material chattels.
Moreover, the State has an income like any private person.
This being so, the State, in its corporate capacity, has Purchas-
ing Power like any private individual ; and it may buy a sum of
Money by granting an Annuity in exchange for it ; or the Right to
receive a series of payments, either perpetual, or for a limited time,
to be paid out of its future income.
That is to say the Credit of the State, just like the Credit
of a private person, brings into Commerce the Present Value, or the
Present Right, to its Future Income.
Now, the State, in its corporate capacity, has to perform certain
duties, and is often in want of a considerable sum of money for an
emergency, such as a war ; or to provide against a public famine ; or
to create some great public work, such as a Railroad or a Canal ; or
to build ironclads.
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438 Fundamental Concepts and Axiotns bk. II.
In order to effect these purposes it buys a present sum of Money,
and gives in exchange for it an Annuity, or the Right to receive
a series of payments out of its future income. The Money becomes
the absolute property of the State ; and the Annuity becomes the
property of the subscribers to the Loan.
In legal language, this Annuity is termed a Bank Annuity;
because, as we have shown, the original meaning of the word Banco,
or Bank, is a Public Debt. In former times it was also called a
Rent ; but this name has gone quite out of use in England, though
it is still the usual name for the Funds on the Continent
In granting these perpetual Annuities, the State never binds itself
to pay off the principal ; hence, in popular language, they are called
the Funds; because the capital sum is founded, or fixed. The
State, however, reserves to itself the right to pay off the Annuities, if
it pleases to do so ; that is, to buy up these Rights of Action against
itself, just as a merchant buys up his own acceptances. If the
Fund-holder wishes to get back his capital, he can sell his Annuity
to any other person. If the Government wishes to pay off these
Annuities, it buys them in the open market like a private individual.
The Funds are therefore marketable, or vendible commodities, just
like any material chattels.
The Funds are, therefore, Property of exactly the same nature as
the shares in a public company. The individual shareholders pay
over their money to the Company as a Persona^ and receive in
exchange for it the Right to share in the future profits of the
Company ; the Fund-holders pay over their money to the State as a
Persona, and receive in exchange for it the Right to receive a series
of payments out of the future income of the country. The Funds
are, therefore, simply a mass of Exchangeable Property, similar
to Bills of Exchange, Annuities, Shares in Public Companies, and all
other Incorporeal Property.
Thus Public, like private Credit, is simply the Present Right
to Future Payments.
On the Rath of the Public Debt to the Wealth of the country.
We shall now observe the evil consequences in Economics of the
want of clear fundamental Concepts.
Mr. Capps values the Wealth of the country at ^6,000,000,000 ;
and he says that the National Debt is about one-seventh of the
wealth of the country.
But what does Mr. Capps mean by the Wealth of the country?
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F.] The Funds 439
Even taking the Wealth of the country as its material property
only, such an estimate is manifestly utterly inadequate. Taking
a very moderate estimate of the value of the land upon which
London is built, it will be found that it exceeds ^4,000,000,000 ;
and when to this is added the value of the land upon which other
great cities, such as Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds,
Bristol, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee, and hosts of others, are built,
it will be found that the value of these lands alone exceeds many
times the value of what Mr. Capps estimates as the value of the
Wealth of the whole country. Indeed, as far as we can make out,
Mr. Capps seems to exclude the whole of the land from the Wealth
of the country.
Besides the author of the Eryxias, Smith, Say, Mill, and every
Economist of note since, have all classed the natural and acquired
industrial faculties of the members of the Society, as part of the
Wealth of the country. Are all these included in Mr. Capps's
estimate of the Wealth of the country ?
Moreover, Demosthenes, Melon, Dutot, Adam Smith, Say, Mill,
and every Economist of note since, all class the Personal Credit of
all the bankers, merchants, traders, corporations of all sorts, and the
Credit of the State itself, as National Wealth. Is all this included
in Mr. Capps's estimate of the Wealth of the country ?
In addition to this, there is that gigantic mass of Property termed
Incorporeal Property, including Mercantile and Banking Credits of
all kinds ; Shares in Commercial Companies of all kinds ; the good-
wills of all the places of business of all kinds; the practice of
professions, copyrights, patents, and many other kinds of valuable
Rights. On looking at WettenhalFs list, it will be seen that the
Property dealt with on the Stock Exchange exceeds ^8,000,000,000;
more than Mr. Capps's estimates as the Wealth of the whole
country !
It is shown that the total amount of the Banking and Mercantile
Credits in this country, may be approximately estimated at more
than ;£i 0,000,000, 000; not far from double of what Mr. Capps
estimates as the Wealth of the whole country !
Moreover, how can Mr. Capps estimate the value of all the
Property in the households of private persons, their plate, furniture,
pictures, libraries, and curios ; or the value of all the goods in the
warehouses and shops of traders ?
It is manifest that all estimates of the " Wealth n of the nation
are mere delusions and snares, and of no service for any scientific
purpose. It is probable that the real Wealth of the country, in its
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440 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
widest estimate, would exceed Mr. Capps's estimate one hundred
fold
As a matter of fact, the Funds are not a mortgage upon the land
and material products of the country, as Mill, Capps, and so many
others allege ; they are a charge upon the Income of the country.
The interest of the Debt is not a charge upon persons only who
have an income from material property, but also a charge upon
persons whose income is derived from industry of all sorts. The
industry of all the professions, and of all intellectual capital, is just
as much pledged for the payment of the dividends as the incomes of
those who have real estate.
The Funds are an Annuity, payable out of the Income of the
entire nation; and consequently their weight upon the Public
Wealth is the Ratio of this Annuity to the General Income of the
nation.
Some persons propose that the Debt should be discharged by
compelling everyone who is possessed of property to give up so
much of it. But how are we to compel those persons whose
property consists only in their intellectual abilities, to give up a part
of it ? It is possible to confiscate material property. If a man has
a thousand acres of land, or ten thousand pounds, the State may take
away one hundred acres of his land, or a thousand pounds of his
money. But how is the State to confiscate one-tenth of his
intellectual capital ? A great advocate, physician, engineer, or other
professional man, makes an income of ;£ 10,000 a year. While he
does so, his talents are as much capital to him as an estate in land,
which produces j£i 0,000 a year to its owner. But how is the State
to get possession of a tenth part of a man's intellectual capital ? Is
it to take an axe and chop off a bit of his head? It is clear that
there is no method of taxing intellectual capital, but by taxing its
Profits, or its Income. And the industrial income of every
advocate, physician, engineer, and of every artisan, is as much
pledged for the payment of the Funds as the income of men of real
estate.
It is probable that the Ratio of the Funds to the Wealth of
the country, instead of being 1 to 7, is less than 1 to 100.
Are the Funds Wealth ?
Are then the Funds Wealth? This, of course, depends upon
the meaning of Wealth. When it is once agreed, as the ancients
unanimously held, and as all modem Economists have at last come
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F.] The Funds 441
to agree to, that the word Wealth means simply any Exchangeable
Property — anything whatever which can be bought and sold, as
Ulpian said — whatever its nature or its form may be, it is at once
seen that the Funds are Wealth, because they are a mass of Ex-
changeable Property, and they are bought and sold separately and
independently of anything else, just as so much gold and silver,
com, cattle, or timber.
So Byles speaks of the Funds as being property second only
to the land in magnitude. Say, at the very commencement of
his work, expressly classes the Funds as Wealth. And every jurist
in the world knows that the Funds are a mass of Exchangeable
Property.
Mill, indeed, allows that the Funds are Wealth to the owners
of them ; but he says that they are not National Wealth. Now,
when we say that the word Wealth means any Exchangeable
Property, National Wealth can only mean that property which
belongs to the nation in its corporate capacity, such as public lands,
forests, dockyards, the navy, &c, things which do not belong to any
private individual.
When some persons are horrified at the idea that Debts are
Wealth, they are ignorant that the word Debt has two meanings
— that it means both the Creditor's Right of Action, and also
the Debtor's Duty to Pay.
Now, no one says that a person's Duty to Pay is part of his
Wealth; but everyone admits that the Creditor's Right of Action
is part of his Wealth.
The Debtor's Wealth is his Credit, or his power of purchasing
by giving his Promise to pay at a future time, instead of with actual
ready money.
Similarly, the Wealth of the State is its Credit, or its power
of purchasing Money by giving in exchange for it an Annuity, or the
Right to demand a series of future payments from it out of its
future income; and this Annuity, like all Annuities, is a property
quite separate from the actual sums of money which will be paid
in its satisfaction.
If we revert to the original concept of Economics by the
Economists, it will probably tend to clear away any difficulty that
there may be in the case.
The Economists admitted no material products to be Wealth,
except those which were brought into commerce ; those only which
were brought into commerce were Wealth; those which were not
brought into commerce were not Wealth.
442 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
The same doctrine applies to Labour and Credit, now that these
are admitted to be Economic Quantities.
A man may have all the industrial abilities possible; but until
he uses them for profit, they are not Wealth; directly he uses
them so as to earn an income, they become Wealth and Capital.
So a merchant's or trader's Credit So long as he refrains from
putting it into action it is not Wealth; but directly he utilises it
by using it as Purchasing Power, it becomes Wealth. Now, when
a merchant utilises his Credit by making purchases with it, he
creates a Right of Action to demand the price at a future time ;
that is, he brings into commerce the Present Rights to future profits.
This augments the mass of Exchangeable Quantities in commerce,
and, by the doctrines of the Economists, augments the Mass of
Wealth.
Similarly, the Wealth of the State is its Credit, or its Purchasing
Power; and when the State exercises its Purchasing Power by
purchasing Money, and issuing Rights to demand payments out
of its future income, it does exactly as the private merchant does ;
it brings into the Present Rights, or the Present Value of its future
income, and thus augments the mass of exchangeable Quantities,
or Wealth.
The case is exactly analogous to that of a gold mine before the
Gold is extracted from the mine, and coined, and brought into
commerce.
It is usual for popular writers to speak of the Mineral Wealth
of a country — its gold mines, its coal mines, and other mines.
But as a technical term in Economics, the Economists unani-
mously held that a thing is not "Wealth" until the Gold is extracted
from the mines, coined, and brought into commerce ; and extracting
Gold from the mine, coining it, and bringing it into commerce,
augments the mass of Exchangeable Quantities in circulation; and
therefore augments the mass of what, in the technical language of
Economics, is termed Wealth.
Gold in the mines is, in Economics, a Resource ; but it is not
Wealth until it is brought into commerce.
Now, Personal and State Credit are Purchasing Power; and
while they are unused, they are like Gold in the mine — they are
a Resource.
But when Persons and the State utilise their Credit by making
purchases with it, it is exactly analogous to extracting Gold from
the mine, coining it, and bringing it into commerce.
When Persons and the State utilise their Credit by making
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F.] The Funds 443
purchases with it, they Coin their Credit ; and just as extracting
Gold from the mine, coining it, and bringing it into commerce,
augments the mass of Exchangeable Quantities, or Wealth, so when
Persons or the State coin their Credit, it augments the mass of
Exchangeable Quantities, or Wealth. It brings into commerce
the Present Values of their future income ; and this Credit, coined
and brought into commerce, has in every respect identical effects
with an equal quantity of Gold.
Thus the function of Credit, both Personal and Public, is simply
to bring into commerce the Present Values of Future Profits;
and that obviously increases the mass of Exchangeable Quantities,
or Wealth.
The Public Debts are also called the Public Credit
We now see the confusion of Mill's distinction between &e
Wealth of mankind and the Wealth of an individual. He says
that in the Wealth of mankind, nothing is included which does
not of itself answer some purpose of use or pleasure ; that to an
individual, anything is Wealth which enables him to claim from
others a part of their stock of things.
But how can the Wealth of mankind be different in its nature
from the Wealth of individuals? For the Wealth of mankind is
simply the aggregate of the Wealth of individuals.
It is evident that in the one case Mill makes Wealth depend
upon Utility, and in the other upon Exchangeability; the very
confusion he falls into in his first chapter, and which pervades
almost all modern treatises on Economics, and which the Econ-
omics emphatically warned their readers against.
But as the ancients held unanimously, Exchangeability is the
sole essence and principle of Wealth; and Pure or Analytical
Economics is simply the Science which treats of the Laws which
govern the phenomena relating to Exchangeability.
A few examples will show how the utilisation of Credit augments
the Wealth of a country.
When a Company undertakes to construct a public work — a
railroad, a dock, a canal, or any other — it buys money from its
shareholders, and in exchange for the money it gives them certi-
ficates entitling them to share in the future profits of the Company.
The Company as a Persona, in its corporate capacity, utilises its
Credit by buying money from its own shareholders. It makes the
railroad, the canal, the dock, or anything else which produces a
permanent revenue, and in consequence of this revenue the Shares
become a valuable marketable commodity, and are therefore Wealth.
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444 Fundamental Concepts and Axiotns [Bk. II.
So when a Bank is formed, it buys money from its shareholders,
and gives, in exchange for it, Rights to share in the future profits
of the Bank. The Bank then buys Money and Bills by selling
its Credit — a Right of Action instead of actual money — and some
Banks make enormous profits by so doing; and the Shares, or
Rights to share in the future profits of the Bank, become extremely
valuable commodities, or Wealth.
Now, all these great mercantile establishments, producing the
revenues of principalities, are just as much Wealth as the land of
the country; because they produce utilities which are wanted,
demanded, and paid for. They are all created by means of
Credit.
And yet there is not a word about them in the common books
on Economics.
In some countries, and in some of our colonies, it is considered
as the duty of the State to execute these great public works, because
there are not a sufficient number of private persons with the
requisite capital to do so. But the State has no money at its
command to execute them. It must therefore utilise its Credit
as private companies do. It contracts loans to obtain the money,
giving in exchange for them Rights to demand future payments
expected to be made out of the future profits of the works; but
at all events for which the State is liable.
Now these public works, being executed by the State, are Public
Wealth; and they are executed by the State utilising its Credit
And the Funds issued for executing them are just as much Wealth
as the shares of private companies ; and these Public Loans have
augmented the Public Wealth.
Again, suppose that a country is subject to inundations by the
sea, and that to preserve the lives and property of the inhabitants,
it is absolutely necessary to erect vast sea-dykes. Now, as these
sea-dykes are absolutely necessary for the safety of the people,
all the inhabitants must contribute to their formation and main-
tenance.
The State, then, being compelled to execute these works without
delay, utilises its Credit, and buys large sums of money, by giving
in exchange for them Rights to demand future payments out of
the revenues of the country.
Holland is such a country as we have described. It draws twenty
feet of water, and these sea -dykes are necessary for its very
existence.
Now, are these sea-dykes part of the Wealth of Holland? Under
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F.] The Funds 445
the peculiar circumstances of the case, they are wanted, they are
useful, they are the products of land and labour, they cost immense
sums of money. Taking the very narrowest view of Wealth that
any Economist has taken, they answer all the conditions of
Wealth.
It is clear that they stand in exactly the same position as rail-
roads, canals, docks, &c, and a vast quantity of the other Fixed
Capital of the country. The people continually want them; in
fact, they could not exist without them ; and they pay a portion of
their annual income to the persons who advanced the money to
make them. That forms the income of the persons who lent the
money ; and it is justly reckoned as a separate item in the catalogue
of the general income of the country.
Most persons would admit the correctness of the preceding
examples. But when we come to the Public Funds of this country,
which are so many Debts just like the preceding cases, a good many
persons are inclined to say — we have spent many millions of money,
and what have we got for it ? In the preceding cases we have got a
tangible material revenue — producing substance in exchange for the
money. But what have we got in exchange for the hundreds of
millions of the Public Debt under which we are groaning ?
Let us consider :
Suppose a person has spent his money on his amusements —
hearing our famous prima donna sing, or in theatrical entertainments,
or in oratorios, or on food, and many other things. When the
money is spent and gone, it leaves no tangible material result behind.
But has it been lost ? Has the spender received no gratification for
his expenditure ? Undoubtedly he has ; he considered these
gratifications as the equivalent for the money, although they left no
tangible result.
The country may have other wants besides the ones enumerated.
It may have enemies by sea and land, and it may be necessary
to raise fleets and armies to defend its existence; just as the sea
dykes defend the existence of Holland. It may be necessary to
contract large public loans for this purpose. The State utilised its
Credit by buying large sums of money from private persons, and
giving in exchange for them Rights to demand payments out of the
future income of the nation. The persons who sell their money to
the State for this purpose do it a service, equally as those who sold
their money to the State of Holland to erect sea dykes.
What Holland gained in exchange for the money she spent on her
sea dykes, is simply her existence.
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446 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II
So what England has gained in exchange for her Public Debts, is
simply her greatness and existence as a nation. By the Public
Debts contracted in the reigns of William III. and Anne, she was
enabled to prevent all Europe from being enslaved by Louis XIV.
By the Public Debt contracted by the elder Pitt, she acquired
Canada and other transmarine possessions. By the Public Debts
contracted during the wars with Napoleon, she saved her existence
from being trod under the heel of that mighty conqueror, and
purchased her position, as the most powerful State in Europe, in
18 15. By the vast sums spent on her navy she has purchased her
sea power, which is the only thing which enables the British Empire
to hold together.
My esteemed friend, M. Charles Gide, of Montpellier, asks, in
bitter irony, how is the Public Debt of France, contracted as an
indemnity to the Germans, part of the Public Wealth of France?
The answer is melancholy, but simple. That was the price she had
to pay to preserve her independence as a nation, after the un-
fortunate result of the war of 1870-71. By this Debt she redeemed
her independence. And is not her independent existence worth the
money ? Therefore, France is not without a consideration for that
Public Debt.
The Funds are therefore a mass of Exchangeable Property, which
can be bought and sold like any other property, exactly of the same
nature as Bills of Exchange, Bank Credits, Bank Notes, Shares in
Commercial Companies, the Goodwill of a business, Copyrights,
Patents, and all other kinds of Incorporeal Property, which is termed,
in Law, Incorporeal Wealth.
By contracting Public Loans the State does exactly as every
private merchant does who utilises his Credit ; it uses its Purchasing
Power to bring into Commerce the Present Value of its Future
Income, and so augment the mass of Exchangeable, or Economic
Quantities, or Wealth.
GOODWILL.
The Goodwill of a business is a form of Incorporeal Property.
When a trader has established a successful business which brings in
a steady income, that income may be expected to continue ; and the
Right to receive it is a saleable or vendible commodity; it is the
emptio spei of Roman Law.
This Right to receive the future profits of the business, is a
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G.] Goodwill 447
property quite separate and distinct from the house or shop, and the
actual goods in them. It is additional to them, and is a part of the
trader's assets.
Thrale, the great brewer, appointed Johnson one of his executors.
In that capacity it became his duty to sell the business. When the
sale was going on, says Boswell — " Johnson appeared bustling about,
with an inkhorn and pen in his button-hole, like an exciseman, and
on being asked what he really considered to be the value of the
property which was to be disposed of, answered — ' We are not here
to sell a parcel of vats and boilers, but the Potentiality of growing
rich beyond the dreams of avarice.' The latter phrase was merely
Johnsonese for the Goodwill of the business. The price realised
was, we are told elsewhere, ;£i 35,000.
The Goodwill of the business of a great Bank has immense value.
When the banking house of Jones, Loyd, & Co., sold its business to
the London and Westminster Bank, the sum paid for it was
variously stated in the papers, but it was said to be about
^200,000.
This property is, of course, in itself invisible and intangible. But
in some cases it may be recorded on paper, and so become a
material commodity, and be transferred from hand to hand, like any
material goods.
If any one were to buy up all the shares in a great Joint Stock
Bank, he would buy up the whole concern. The shares at par
represent the value of the original capital. But the market value of
the shares in most great Banks several times exceeds their value at
par. The difference between the par value of the shares and
their market value, represents the value of the Goodwill of the
business.
So the value of the Goodwill of the business of our great London
and provincial newspapers, the Times, Daily Telegraphy Standard,
&c, is something colossal.
In a similar way every place of business in the country has a
valuable asset in the Goodwill of the business, which is analogous to
the Right to receive the future profits of the land ; and it will be at
once seen that this, species of property is of enormous magnitude.
It can neither be seen nor handled, but its value can be measured in
money. It can be bought and sold; it is, therefore, a saleable
commodity ; it is the emptio spei of Roman Law.
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448 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
GRESHAM'S LAW.
This is a name which I gave, in 1857, to a great fundamental
Law of superlative importance in Economics, which, though well
known to specialists, had never hitherto received in treatises on
Economics that prominence which its supreme importance deserved.
It has now acquired additional importance from the doctrines which
are now held, and are very vehemently advocated by many influ-
ential persons in most countries.
I gave it this name, in 1857, because it was first explained to
Queen Elizabeth in 1558, by Sir Thomas Gresham; but my friend,
M. Wolowski, in 1864, published two most important treatises,
hitherto unknown, by Oresme, who had announced it to Charles V.,
surnamed the Wise, in France in 1366; and by Copernicus, who
had quite independently, and without knowing anything of Oresme's
Treatise, announced it to Sigismund I., King of Poland, in 1526.
This law has now universally acquired the name of Gresham's Law,
in accordance with my suggestion in 1857; but it ought in justice
to be called the Law of Oresme, Copernicus, and Gresham.
This Law may be stated in these terms :
" The worst form of Currency in circulation regulates the Value
of the whole Currency \ and drives all the other forms of Currency
out of circulation"
The first occasion, that I am aware of, in which the fact was
noticed that bad money drives good money out of circulation, was
by Aristophanes. The Athenians had a splendid coinage of gold
staters, which were the finest coinage in the world, and greatly
conduced to the commercial supremacy of Athens. In the stress
of the Peloponnesian war, in 407 B.C., she issued a debased coinage,
which immediately drove all the good gold staters out of circulation.
Aristophanes says (Batr. 713), "The State has now very often
appeared to us to be placed in the same position towards the good
and noble citizens, as it is with regard to the old currency and the new
gold. For we make no use at all of those which are not adulterated,
but the most beautiful of all money, as it would seem, which are
alone well coined and ring properly, both among Greeks and
foreigners; but of this base copper, struck only yesterday and
recently, of a most villainous stamp. And such of the citizens as
we know to be well bom, and prudent and honourable gentlemen,
and educated in the palaestra and chorus and liberal knowledge,
we insult But the impudent and foreigners, and the base born,
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G.] Greskam's Law 449
and the rascals, and the sons of rascals, and those most recently
come, we employ."
This fact has been observed in every age and country. But
the cause of it was first explained by the illustrious men we have
named, Oresme, Copernicus, and Gresham ; and henceforth it
became a demonstrated law, now universally acknowledged and
recognised in all discussions on the Coinage.
The vast controversy between the Bimetalists and the Mono-
metalists may be reduced to a single simple and definite issue.
Suppose that Governments issue Gold Coin and Silver Coin in
unlimited quantities, and endeavour to establish a Fixed Ratio
between them by Law.
i. Is it the Legal Ratio fixed between the Coins which governs
the relative value of the Metals in Bullion ?
2. Or is it the relative Market Value of the Metals in Bullion
which governs the relative value of the Coins ?
3. And if each Government separately cannot, under such cir-
cumstances, maintain unlimited quantities of Gold Coin and Silver
Coin in circulation at a Fixed Legal Ratio, can all the Governments
in the world, or at least the principal mercantile countries, maintain
unlimited quantities of Gold Coin and Silver Coin in circulation,
if they agreed to enact a uniform Ratio ?
The Bimetalists maintain the first of these propositions; the
Monometalists maintain the second.
To the third issue the Bimetalists reply in the affirmative; the
Monometalists in the negative.
The gradual adoption, by most of the European States and others
throughout the world, of a single Gold Standard, coined in unlimited
quantities, and made Legal Tender to an unlimited amount, with
Coins of other metals, such as Silver, strictly limited in quantity,
and only to be used as subsidiary to the standard limit — which
is termed Monometalism — is one of the most important Econ-
omical events of the nineteenth century.
The purpose of the following remarks is to explain concisely,
but sufficiently fully, the facts and the reasons which induced all
the nations in Europe, after having tried in vain to maintain
Bimetalism for five hundred years, finally to abandon it as hopeless
and impossible, and to adopt the single Gold Standard, which is
Monometalism.
As this law was first demonstrated in France, we shall take the
case of that country first.
2 G
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450 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Charlemagne instituted the system of Coinage which was adopted
by all the States of Western Europe. He declared the pound weight
of Silver to be the standard, and divided it into 240 denarii^ or
pennies ; 1 2 denarii were called a solidus, or shilling ; and therefore
20 soiidi made a pound.
The Kings of France maintained the weight and purity of the
coins till about 1108, when Louis VI. issued a very debased coinage
— half copper and half silver — which made such terrible confusion
that he was obliged to promise that he would not debase it any-
more. With the single exception of St. Louis, the following Kings
continued to degrade and debase the coinage, as they conceived
that it was part of their inalienable divine right to regulate the
value of commodities, and that they could by their fiat compel
their subjects to accept the debased coins at the same value as
good coins. They caused terrible distress and confusion, ruining
the merchants, and driving away commerce from the country. In
1364, Charles V., surnamed the Wise, saw that the debasement
of the coinage had greatly impoverished France, and had con-
tributed greatly to the political troubles which had so cruelly torn
the country. He referred the matter to Nicholas Oresme, one of
his wisest and most trusted councillors, who in answer to the appeal
of his Sovereign, produced his great Traictie de la premiere Invention
des Monnoies, which may be justly said to stand at the head of
modern Economic literature, and laid the foundations of Monetary
Science.
Oresme begins by explaining the nature and uses of Money,
and then he laid down the following principles:
1. That the Sovereign has no right to diminish the weight,
debase the purity, or change the denomination of the Coin. To
do so is robbery.
2. That the Sovereign can in no case fix the value of the pur-
chasing power of the Coins. If he could do so, he could fix the
value of all other commodities, which was, indeed, the idea of
mediaeval Sovereigns.
3. That the I^egal Ratio between the Coins must strictly conform
to the relative market value of the Metals.
4. That if the fixed Legal Ratio of the Coins differs from the
natural or market value of the Metals, the Coin which is underrated
entirely disappears from circulation, and the Coin which is over-
rated alone remains current.
5. That if degraded and debased Coin is allowed to circulate
along with good and full-weighted Coin, all the good Coin disappears
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G.] Gresham's Law 451.
from circulation, and the base Coin alone remains current, to the
ruin of commerce.
This distinguished Frenchman in the fourteenth century, was the
first to raise his protest against the idea that Sovereigns could fix the
value of the Coins and other commodities.
The same ideas and evils existed all through Europe, and were
called morbus numericus*
Poland, which then comprehended the modern Prussia, was
afflicted with these evils. Sigismund I., King of Poland, sought the
advice of Copernicus, who was a member of the Prussian Diet. At
the instance of Sigismund, Copernicus drew up a masterly treatise
on Money, which he entitled Ratio moneta cudcndct^ which has only
been discovered within the present century, and is included in the
magnificent edition of his works printed at Warsaw, in 1854.
Copernicus had no knowledge of the treatise of Oresme, written
160 years before his time, but he came to exactly the same conclu-
sions. They were :
1. That it is impossible for the prince to regulate the value of the
Coins or of any other commodity.
2. That all that the prince or the law can do, is to maintain
the Coins at their full legal weight, purity, and denomination.
3. That it is robbery for the prince to diminish the weight, debase
the purity, or change the denomination, of his Coins.
4. That it is impossible for good and full-weighted Coin, and
degraded and debased Coin to circulate together ; that all the good
Coin is hoarded away, melted down, or exported ; and the degraded
and debased coin alone remains in circulation.
5. That the Coins of gold and silver must bear the same ratio to
each other as the metals do in the market. It is impossible to keep
gold and silver Coins in circulation together in unlimited quantities,
at a fixed legal Ratio, differing from the market ratio of the metals.
The Coin which is underrated disappears from circulation, and the
coin which is overrated alone remains current
6. That when good coins are issued from the Mint, all the base
and degraded Coins must be withdrawn from circulation, or else all
the good coins will disappear to the ruin of commerce.
7. That it is impossible to have two measures of Value in the
same country, just as it is to have two standard measures of weight,
length, or capacity.
The early English sovereigns did not debase their Coins ; but
immense quantities of base and degraded Coins were in circulation,
and consequently all the good Coin disappeared as soon as it
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452 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. IL
was issued from the Mint. Edward I. was the first to diminish the
weight of the Coin. He coined 243 pennies out of the pound
weight of silver, and by successive diminutions the pound weight of
silver was coined into 744 pennies under Elizabeth. The instant
disappearance of the good coin as soon as it was issued from the
Mint, was the subject of repeated debates in Parliament for centuries,
and was an inscrutable puzzle to financiers and Statesmen. They
thought that it was a direct inspiration of the Evil One that made
people prefer bad coin to good coin. But they had no Oresme or
Copernicus to explain it to them, and the only remedy they could
suggest was to enact penalties of death and mutilation against those
who exported good coin.
At last Sir Thomas Gresham explained to Queen Elizabeth that
good coin and bad coin cannot circulate together, but that the good
coin entirely disappears, and the bad coin alone remains current.
As Gresham was the first in this country to explain that permitting
bad coin to circulate was the cause of the disappearance of the good
coin, I suggested, in 1857, that this should be called Gresham's law,
and this has now been universally adopted. But as Oresme and
Copernicus had both declared this law before him, it ought to be
called the Law of Oresme, Copernicus, and Gresham.
This great fundamental law of the coinage soon became common
knowledge. It is thus stated in a pamphlet in 1696 :
" When two sorts of Coin are current in the same nation of like
value by denomination, but not intrinsically [i.e., in market value],
that which has the least value will be current, and the other, as much
as possible, will be hoarded" or melted down, or exported, we may
add.
This great Law applies in the following cases :
1. If the Coins consist of one metal only, and clipped, degraded,
and debased Coins are allowed to circulate along with good Coins,
all the good Coins disappear ; they are either (1) hoarded away (2^
melted down or (3), exported; and the bad coin alone remains
in circulation.
2. If Coins of two metals, such as gold and silver, are allowed to
circulate together in unlimited quantities at a fixed Legal Ratio,
which differs from the relative market value of the metals, the Coin
which is underrated disappears from circulation, and the Coin which
is overrated alone remains current.
3. As a necessary corollary it follows that it is impossible to
maintain a fixed Par of Exchange between countries which use
different metals as their Standard Unit.
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G.] Gresham's Law 453
This Law is not confined to single and separate counties, it is not
limited in Time or Space, it is absolutely universal ; and it is equally
impossible for the whole world to maintain Coins of two or more
metals in circulation in unlimited quantities, at a fixed Legal Ratio,
which differs from the natural or market value of the metals, as it is
for single and separate countries to do so.
The explanation of this problem, which was an inscrutable
mystery to statesmen and financiers for so many ages, is extremely
simple. If shillings are allowed to circulate together, some of which
are worth twelvepence, and others only ninepence, and everyone
is allowed to pay his debts in which of them he pleases, he will
naturally pay his debts with the shillings worth ninepence, and
keep those worth twelvepence in his pocket Or if shillings worth
twelvepence have no more value than shillings worth ninepence,
bullion dealers collect all the heavy coins they can, and melt them
down into bullion, in which form they have more value; or they
export them to foreign countries, where they have their full value.
Thus the underrated coins have invariably been found to disappear
in one or other of these three ways.
It is exactly the same in all cases in which persons are allowed
to pay their debts in things which have nominally the same value,
but in reality are of different values. When persons are allowed
to pay their rents in kind, they naturally select the worst portions
of the produce to pay their landlords, and keep the best portions
for themselves..
If the law allowed two different yard measures to be used, one
of three feet and one of two feet, and a merchant received
an order for so many yards of cloth, he would naturally fulfil
the order in yards of two feet, rather than in yards of three
feet.
If the law allowed two miles to be used, one of 1,000 yards
and one of 1,760 yards, and a cabman was desired to drive five
miles, he would naturally drive five miles of 1,000 yards, rather than
five miles of 1,760 yards.
So if the .law allows debtors to pay their debts in coins of
different metals, which are rated equally in law, but whose value differs
in the market of the world, they will naturally pay their debts in
the coin which is overrated, and keep the coin which is underrated
at home. Then inevitably the coin which is underrated disappears
from circulation, and that which is rated above its natural or market
value alone remains current; and this is true, whether single and
separate States do so, or whether the whole world does so. For
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454 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
the whole world can no more by universal agreement make nine
equal to twelve than any separate State can.
For the very same reason, it is impossible to maintain a fixed
Par of Exchange between countries which use different metals as
their standard, because coins are only accepted in foreign countries
according to the market value of the bullion they contain; and
as the value of the metals is constantly changing in the market
of the world, the value of the coins must equally do so, too.
The truth of these principles, which are gathered from the ex-
perience of ages, is incontrovertible.
In 1663, the first coinage of guineas, made from gold imported
by the African Company, took place. By the Mint indenture, they
were struck to be of the value of 20s. in silver, at the market value
of gold and silver at the time. But they were never made legal
tender at that rate. They consequently circulated at the rate which
people choose to place on them, and they soon passed at 22s.
The silver coinage became shamefnlly clipped, worn, and degraded,
and the rating of the guinea became higher and higher; and, as
always has happened, all the good coin was melted down or ex-
ported.
In April, 1690, the goldsmiths complained to the House of
Commons that they had ascertained that vast quantities of silver
bullion had been exported. That many Jews and merchants had
recently bought up immense quantities of silver to carry out of
the kingdom, and had given three-halfpence an ounce for it above
its regulated value. That this had encouraged the melting-down
of much plate and milled money, whereby, for six months no bullion
had been brought to the Mint to be coined. A Committee of the
House verified these allegations. It was shown that the profits
of melting-down the milled money was above ^28 per ^1,000;
and that while the Mint price of silver was 5s. 2d. per ounce, the
current price was 5s. 3jd.
In 1691, a posthumous work by Sir William Petty was published,
in which, as far as we are aware, is the first announcement of the
principle that the standard coin should be made of one metal only.
He says {Political Economy of Ireland^ ch. 10) that Money is
understood to be the uniform measure of the value of all com-
modities; that the proportion of value between pure Gold and
fine Silver alters, as the earth and industry of men produce more
of one than the other. That Gold has been worth but twelve
times its own weight in Silver, but that of late it has been worth
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G.] Gresham's Law 455
fourteen; "so there can be but one of the two metals of Gold and
Silver to be a fit matter for Money'1
This is, as far as we are aware, the first enunciation of the great
principle that only one metal should be adopted for the standard
Coin and measure of value. Nor are we aware of what amount
of attention it received when announced.
The state of the silver coinage had been continually becoming
worse, and the nominal price of guineas rising. In the months of
May, June, and July, 1695, 572 bags of silver coin, each of ;£ioo,
were brought into the Exchequer, whose aggregate weight, according
to the standard, ought to have been 18,451 lbs. : their actual weight
was 9,480 lbs., showing a deficiency in the current coins in the rate
of 10 to 22. Guineas had risen to 30s., and the exchange with
Holland had fallen 25 per cent.
A writer says — "And so by degrees, as the silver coin was
diminished and debased in itself, so it fell in the estimation of
the people; and in proportion gold advanced, and also bullion
(that is, not in itself, but in proportion to the bad money) ; not that
bullion became worth 6s. 5d. an ounce, or guineas 30s. in good
money — that is, in weighty standard money — but in clipped and
counterfeit money, whereof 6s. sd. was not of the true and esteemed
value of 5s. 2d. And as we ourselves grew sensible of the want of
value in money that passed, so did foreigners likewise, and the
Foreign Exchanges soon altered accordingly; so that it cannot
properly be said that bullion is advanced much, but that the
money that is exchanged for them is much less value than it was ;
and the new coining of our money will not, as I apprehend, alter
the value of bullion, gold, etc., but it will bring silver in coin to its
due value. "
" If guineas continue current at 30s. a piece, the exchange will
continue about the rate it does, except the common and ordinary
variation, which many sudden drafts and remittances occasion : and
if guineas fall, the exchange will rise in proportion ; and if the silver
coin is redressed, guineas will fall."
He repeatedly declares that the only way to set matters right was
to reform the coinage.
Mr. William Lowndes, the Secretary to the Treasury, was ordered
to make a report on the coinage. In this he enters into a long, and,
at that time, valuable, investigation of the history of the coinage,
and its successive depreciations in weight and fineness, in which he
maintained the extraordinary hallucination that the successive frauds
committed by the English kings in diminishing the bullion in the
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45 6 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
coin had raised its value. His doctrine was, that by raising the name
of the coin, it thereby acquired increased value. His proposal was,
either that the new coinage should be made of a diminished weight,
or that the same pieces should be rat^d at a higher price in tale,
or that 60 pence were equal to 75 pence.
The proposal of Lowndes, coming from a person holding his
official position, demanded an immediate answer. Locke performed
the task in a manner worthy of his genius, which has remained
unassailable ever since. (Further Considerations concerning raising
the Value of Money. Works, vol. iv.) This is far too long to be
quoted here, but it is given in my Bimetalism. He says — " Raising
of coin is but a specious word to deceive the unwary. He only
gives the usual denomination of a greater quantity of silver to a less
(e.g. calling four grains of silver a penny to-day, when five grains of
silver made a penny yesterday) ; but adds no worth, or real value,
to the silver coin to make amends for its want of silver. That is
impossible to be done, for it is only the quantity of silver in it that
is, and eternally will be, the measure of its value ; and to convince
anyone of this, I ask whether he that is forced to receive but
320 ounces of silver under the denomination of ;£ioo (for 400
ounces of silver, which he lent under the like denomination of
;£ioo) will think these 320 ounces of silver, however denominated,
worth those 400 ounces he lent ? If anyone can be supposed to be
so silly, he need but go to the next market, or shop, to be convinced
that men value not money by the denomination, but by the quantity
of silver there is in it. One may as rationally hope to lengthen a
foot by dividing it into fifteen parts instead of twelve, and calling
them inches, as to increase the value of silver there is in a shilling
by dividing it into fifteen parts instead of twelve, and calling them
pence."
"I have spoken of silver coin alone, because that makes the
money of account and measure of trade all through the world. For
all contracts are, I think, everywhere made, and accounts kept, in
silver coin.
" Silver, therefore, and silver alone, is the measure of commerce.
Two metals as gold and silver cannot be the measure of commerce both
together in any country [Locke here enunciates the same doctrine as
Copernicus] ; because the measure of commerce must be perpetually
the same invariable, and keeping the same proportion of value in all
its parts. But so only one metal does, or can do, to itself: so silver is
to silver, and gold to gold. An ounce of silver is always of equal
value to an ounce of silver, and an ounce of gold to an ounce of
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G.] Gresham's Law 457
gold ; and two ounces of the one or the other of double the value to
an ounce of the same. But gold and silver change their value to
one another; for suppose them to be in value as 16 to i now,
perhaps the next month they may be as 15! or 15 \ to 1. And one
may as well make a measure, e.g. a yard, whose parts lengthen and
shrink, as a measure of trade, of materials that have not always a
settled invariable value to one another.
"One metal, therefore, alone can be the money of account and
contract, and the measure of commerce in any country."
Locke then goes through each of Lowndes' arguments and pro-
posals one by one, and gives them such a refutation as would have
delighted the heart of Chillingworth. To Lowndes' doctrine, that
raising the coin by making it more in tale would make it more
abundant for general use, Locke says — "Just as the boy cut his
leather into five quarters, as he called them, to cover his ball, when
cut into four quarters it fell short ; but after all his pains, as much of
his ball lay bare as before — if the quantity of coined silver employed
in England fall short, the arbitrary denomination of a greater number
of pence given to it, or, which is all one, to the several coined pieces
of it, will not make it commensurate to the size of our trade, or the
greatness of our occasions.
" The increase of denomination does, or can do, nothing in the
case, for it is silver by its quantity, and not denomination, that is
the price of things and measure of commerce ; and it is the weight
of silver in it, and not the name of the pieces, that men estimate
commodities by, and exchange them for.
" If this be not so, when the necessity of our affairs abroad, or ill
husbandry at home, has carried away half our treasure, and a"
moiety of our money is gone out of England, it is but to issue a
proclamation that a penny shall go for twopence, sixpence for a
shilling, half a crown for a crown, &c.t and immediately, without
any more ado, we are as rich as before; and, when half the
remainder is gone, it is but doing the same thing again, and raising
the denomination anew, and we are where we were; and so on.
Whereby, supposing the denomination raised I5~i6ths, every man
will be as rich with an ounce of silver in his purse, as he was before
when he had 16 ounces there, and, in as great plenty of money,
able to carry on his trade without bartering ; his silver, by this short
way of raising, being changed into the value of gold, for when
silver will buy 16 times as much wine, oil, and bread, &c, to-day as
it would yesterday (all other things remaining the same but the
denomination), it hath the real worth of gold.
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45 8 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
" This, I guess, everybody sees cannot be so, and yet this must
be so, if it be true that raising the denomination one-fifth can
supply the want, or one jot raise the value of silver in respect of
other commodities; i.e., make a less quantity of corn, oil, and cloth,
and all other commodities, than it would yesterday, and thereby
remove the necessity of bartering. For, if raising the denomination
can thus raise the value of coin in exchange for other commodities
one-fifth, by the same reason it can raise it two-fifths, and afterwards
three-fifths, and as much farther as you please. So that, by this
admirable contrivance of raising our coin, we shall be rich, and as
well able to support the charge of the Government, and carry on
our trade without bartering, or any other inconvenience for want of
money, with 60,000 ounces of coined silver in England, as if we
had six or sixty millions. ... If this could be, we might, as every
one sees, raise silver to the value of gold, and make ourselves as
rich as we pleased."
Thus Locke shows that if it be possible to fix the value of gold
to silver by law, at the ratio of 15 \ to 1 when the natural or market
value is 35^ to 1, it would be just as easy to make silver equal in
value to gold at once.
Parliament resolved to recoin the silver at the old standard of
weight, fineness, and denomination. It cost ^3,000,000. But no
sooner was the new coin issued from the Mint than it was hoarded,
or exported to purchase gold. Several proclamations were issued
gradually reducing the price of guineas. Eventually the Treasury
gave notice that they would be received at the rate of 21s. 6<L
But, even at that price, all the best and heaviest silver coins were
culled out and exported to Holland, where gold might be purchased
at a great profit; and men's ideas began to be transferred from
silver to gold as the standard coin.
The Government, in their perplexity, referred the whole question
to Sir Isaac Newton, the Master of the Mint, and he presented an
elaborate report {Parliamentary History, vol. vii. col. 526), shewing
the different ratios at which gold and silver were coined in the
different States of Europe, and that, according to the market rate
of gold and silver, the real value of the guinea was only 20s. 84,
instead of 21s. 6&, at which it currently passed. This necessarily
caused all the good silver to disappear. He recommended that the
price should be reduced to 21s. by way of experiment. This was
accordingly done, and the value of the guinea was then fixed at 2 is*
But as the guinea was still overrated by 4d., the guinea became, by
Gresham's Law, the standard current coin, and it became the
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G.] Gresham's Law 459
recognized custom of merchants that all mercantile obligations were
payable in gold ; and the Foreign Exchanges were reckoned in the
gold coin instead of silver. Thus, ever since 17*8, England has
been practically a Gold Monometallic country, although the
Bimetallic law still lingered on for another hundred years in the
Statute Book. At the great recoinage in 18 16, this custom, which
had been in use for a hundred years, was adopted as Law, and our
present system of coinage was established.
When the East India Company extended their dominion over
India, they found the multiplicity of gold and silver coins in
circulation (994 in number) — of different weights and fineness,
and constantly varying in value — an intolerable nuisance. They
endeavoured to establish Bimetalism — /.*., to issue Gold and
Silver Coins at a Fixed Legal Ratio — in 1766. They struck a
Gold Mohur, and ordered it to pass current for 14 sicca rupees.
But as the rating of this gold mohur was much below the current
silver value of gold, it was found impossible to get it into circu-
lation. It was accordingly called in, and in 1769 a new gold
mohur was issued and ordered to pass current at 16 sicca
rupees. But this coin was not a success. The Company, being
in great perplexity at the disorder of their coinage, sought the
advice of Sir James Stewart, who had the greatest reputation in
England as an Economist before the publication of the Wealth
of Nations in 1776. Sir James Stewart acordingly drew up a
treatise for them in 1772 {The principles of Money applied to the
present state of the Coin of Bengal, 1772.) He enforced exactly
the same principles as Oresme, Copernicus, and Gresham had
done before him. He showed that the defect of coining both
metals arose from the rivalship of the metals themselves. They
have been adopted equally as a medium of commerce, or as
an adequate equivalent for everything that can be bought. But
how can the value of the coins remain stable while that of
the metals varies? He then showed that a change in the
relative value of the metals threw all business into confusion. Sir
J. Stewart then shewed that if either metal be adopted as the
standard, the other must be adjusted to it from time to time. He
then pointed out why the attempt to fix a value between the coins
by the Company had completely failed ; and that the Silver Coins
had been melted down and exported. In proportion as the de-
nomination of a coin was raised above its market value, the value
of such denomination was debased, and the exportation of the coin
which was undervalued was promoted. The Indian Government
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460 Fundatnental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
made several attempts to remedy the evils pointed out by Sir J.
Stewart, but they were attended with very partial success.
In 1806, the masterly and unanswerable treatise of Lord
Liverpool, on the Coins of the Realm, reached India, and it was
immediately taken into consideration by the Governor-General in
Council, and they issued a Minute to the Governments of Bombay
and Madras on the whole question of the coinage. This important
Minute had never hitherto been published, but the India Office
most courteously has permitted me to make it public, and I proceed
to quote the parts of it relating to Bimetalism in full, because it is
not accessible to the public.
" In the prosecution of our inquiries, we have referred to a Letter
from the Earl of Liverpool to the King, on the Coins of the Realm,
copies of which we transmit with the present dispatch. We think
his Lordship has established the principle that the * Money, or
Coin, which is to be the principal measure of property,
ought to be of one metal only.' In applying this argument to
a Coin for general use in India, there cannot be a doubt, in our
opinion, that such a Coin must be silver.
" It is our opinion, supported by the best authorities, and proved
by experience, that Coins of Gold and Silver cannot circulate as
legal tenders of payment at fixed relative values, as in England and
India, without great loss : this loss is occasioned by the fluctuating
value of the metals of which the Coins are formed. A proportion
between the Gold and Silver Coins is fixed by law, according to the
Value of the Metals, and it may be on the justest principles : but
owing to a change of circumstances, Gold may become of greater
value, in relation to Silver, than at the time the proportion was
fixed : it therefore becomes profitable to exchange Silver for Gold,
so the coin of that metal is withdrawn from circulation: and if
Silver should increase in its value, in relation to Gold, the same
circumstances would tend to reduce the quantity of Silver coin in
circulation. As it is impossible to prevent the fluctuation in the value
of the metals, so it is equally impracticable to prevent the consequences
thereof on the Coins made from these metals.
" From these circumstances the Coin of England has been much
disordered, and the papers referred to have plainly shewn the losses
and inconveniences experienced in India from similar causes. The
loss in Bengal was certainly enhanced by giving to the Gold Coin,
at the period of its issue, an improper value, in reference to the
Silver Coin. Loss and inconvenience have been occasioned at
Madras by the contrary error, where the Silver Coin was rated at
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G.] Gresham's Law 461
too high a value in relation to the Gold Coin. But there is a radical
defect in the principle itself of giving a fixed value to metals in Coin,
that are in their nature subject to continual change : because the
metals, being articles of commerce, their value will fluctuate with
the demand Had the nicest proportion been fixed between the
Gold and Silver Coins of Bengal and Madras, at the time of their
issue ; yet the first alteration in the price of the metals would have
occasioned the Batta (premium) so much complained of, though
such batta had not existed before. The alteration in the value of
the metals in Europe has been the principal cause of the present
state of the English Silver Currency : a debased and counterfeit
money having been introduced into circulation, which does not
possess above one-third of the intrinsic value of the legal Coin of
the realm. To adjust the relative values of the Gold and Silver
Coins, according to the fluctuations of the metals, would create
continual difficulties, and the establishment of such a principle
would of itself tend to perpetuate the inconvenience and loss.
"Having stated our views concerning a general Currency for
British India, we deem it unnecessary to make any observations on
the advantages attending such a measure, as our Governments
abroad, by constant experience of the manifold evils of the present
system, are fully competent to appreciate the benefits that would
result from the adoption of a plan, whereby a Coin of one standard
weight and fineness would become exclusively current as the general
measure of value."
This weighty Minute is of decisive authority in the question.
The Indian Government, from its own experience of Bimetalism,
united its judgment to the arguments of Oresme, Copernicus,
Gresham, Petty, Locke, Harris, Newton, Sir James Stewart, and
Lord Liverpool, that it is impossible to maintain Coins of Gold and
Silver in circulation in unlimited quantities, at a fixed Legal Ratio,
differing from the relative market of the metals : but the one which
is underrated disappears from circulation, and the one which is
overrated alone remains current.
This fundamental law of the coinage was further confirmed by the
experience of France from 1803 to 1874, which is usually cited by
the Bimetalists as the golden age of Bimetalism, but which, in
reality, is the complete refutation of their doctrines, and is another
proof of the truth of Gresham's Law.
After innumerable changes, the Ratio of Gold to Silver in France
was fixed, in 1726, at 14^ to 1. By this, however, the value of
Gold was underrated, and by Gresham's Law it disappeared, and
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462 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Silver became the standard of France. In 1785, Calonne changed
the ratio to 15^, and this was confirmed in 1803; and the Bimet-
alists contend that this ratio kept the market value of the metals
steady till 1873. But this allegation is wholly erroneous. The
French liberating armies plundered the sanctuaries of the countries
they came to liberate of their silver, which was sent in immense
quantities to the Paris Mint to be coined. This caused the ratio
of Silver to Gold to fall to 1 to 17. When the market price of
either metal rises above the legal ratio, that metal is said to be
at a Premium; and, as a necessary consequence, it disappears
from circulation by Gresham's Law. From 1803 to 1850, Gold
was constantly at a premium; and, as a necessary consequence,
there was no Gold in general circulation. There was, of course,
plenty to be had at the Bank of France; but those who wanted
it had to pay a premium for it. The evidence on this point is
absolutely overwhelming and indisputable. I can speak from per-
sonal experience. In 1839-40, I resided in France, and travelled
through and through it ; and there was not a single gold coin to be
seen in general circulation, nothing but bags of silver five franc pieces.
But after 1849-50, large quantities of gold came in from California
and Australia. The value of gold began to fall. The legal ratio
was 1 5 J, and the market value of silver was 15 J. So long as this
was the case, there was no gold in circulation. But the value of
silver rose from 15! to 15J- ; and this apparently slight change in
the relative value of gold and silver sufficed in a few years to
drive more than ^150,000,000 of silver coin out of circulation,
and substitute an equal amount of gold for it. Silver rose to a
premium, and disappeared from circulation. In 1857, I was re-
siding at a French seaport town, and every steamer that came in
was laden with casks of Scotch whisky, going to be transmuted
into French brandy, and every steamer that went out had its decks
piled with bags of silver five franc pieces. It was the same at
every other port. At last silver became so scarce, that it became
necessary to coin those detestable gold five franc pieces.
In 1865, the Latin Union was formed of France, Italy, Swit-
zerland, and Belgium, to coin gold and silver in unlimited quantities,
at the ratio of 15^. But silver had begun to fall again; and in
1867, fears began to be entertained as to the stability of the Latin
Union. A Commission, however, in that year voted by a majority
against the adoption of a single gold standard. But in 1868,
another Commission voted by a majority strongly in favour of a
single gold standard; and another Commission, in 1869-70, came
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j.] Interest 463
to the same conclusion. In June, 1870, a Commission was ap-
pointed in Prussia to consider the expediency of adopting a single
gold standard. But the Franco-German War broke out immediately
afterwards, and put a stop to all such debates.
By Acts of November, 1871, and May, 1873, Germany adopted
a single gold standard, with a subsidiary currency of silver. In
December, 1872, Belgium adopted a single gold standard, with silver
as subsidiary. In December, 1872, a debate was held at the Socikth
d* Economic Politique> of Paris, on the question of a single or double
standard, and the majority were in favour of a single gold standard.
Again, in January, 1874, a Monetary Conference was held in Paris.
M. Dumas, of the Paris Mint, presided; M. de Parieu was Vice-
President. And the result of this was that the right of the free
coinage of silver was abolished. This, as the Economist said, was
"an adhesion to the theory of a single gold standard on the part
of the French Government ; and their appointment of M. de Parieu
as one of the Commissioners to represent them is a fresh sign
of their being in favour of the gradual abolition of a law which, after
seventy years' experience, is found to be effete in theory, and
prejudicial in action."
Thus the assertions of the Bimetalists are utterly confuted. It
is absurd to suppose that the French Government would have taken
the very serious step of closing the Mints to the free coinage of
silver without extremely cogent reasons. It is now shown that
the necessity for it had been foreseen for six years, and it was
only done after the fullest discussion, and by the recommendation
of the most experienced authorities.
Gresham's Law is universal, because it is founded on instincts
and qualities of human nature which are universal in every age
and in every country, that is, the instinct and the desire to seize
upon any profit that can be made. And in every age, and in
every country, men have seen that a profit is to be made by
melting-down or exporting coin which is underrated by law.
INTEREST.
When a person "borrows," i.e. buys, a sum of money, and
promises to pay a sum for its use at the end of the time he borrows
it for, this sum is termed Interest
At the present time it is not necessary to say very much respecting
the extraordinary prejudice which prevailed for so many ages against
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464 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. IL
Interest, or Usury, on Money — a prejudice which has only died out
very recently in this country, and still prevails in many foreign
countries where Usury Laws still exist.
We may shortly explain, however, how the prejudice arose. If
one plants corn in the ground, the corn increases in actual visible
quantity, which is palpable to the senses ; or if one has flocks or
herds, they multiply and increase of themselves in the ordinary
course of Nature. But if Momy were sown in the ground it would
not increase, nor are marriages celebrated between sovereigns, giving
rise to half-sovereigns. Consequently, the idea took possession of
men's minds that Money is, in its own nature, barren, and incapable
of increase, and it is a crime against Nature to take Interest, or
Profit, for the use of Money.
It was quite overlooked that Capital may increase by Exchange,
as we have shown (Capital), as well as by increase of actual
quantity.
The greatest minds, therefore, the world ever saw were enthralled
with the extraordinary delusion that it was a great crime to take
Interest for the use of Money. Aristotle considered the bounty
of Nature as the only true source of wealth, and had a strong
aversion against trading. He observes that there are two uses of
everything — its actual use and exchange. The one he considers
natural, and the other against nature. A shoemaker would, how-
ever, probably consider the exchange of a shoe quite as natural an
operation as using it Aristotle, however, looked with a very doubt-
ful and jealous eye on all exchanges. And money being for the
very purpose of facilitating exchanges, was in its nature of a dubious
origin; and when that purpose, which is already dubious, was
changed into lending it as Usury, the mischief was doubly aggra-
vated ; and he pronounces the last mode of using it to be utterly
detestable and abominable.
The Hebrew legislator and prophets strongly denounced Usury ^
but it is evident that they did not refer to interest on money
advanced in the way of trade, when its very purpose was to make
profits, but to charitable loans to persons in necessitous circum-
stances.
Nevertheless, the Mosaic interdict of Usury was adopted, and
confirmed in its broadest and most unqualified terms by the rulers
of the Christian church. Money-lenders, never a very popular
class anywhere, were laid under the Divine curse, the consequence
of which was that in the sixth century the Jews had become the
great money-lenders of Christendom. As the Jews had no hopes
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for the future, another sin, more or less, could not influence their
destiny. While, therefore, Usury was strictly forbidden to Christians,
the Jews were not molested ; and from that era we may date the
strong bias of the children of Israel to this species of trading, which
was further strengthened and aggravated by the treatment they
subsequently received in every country in Europe.
When it was further discovered that the prince of the pagan
philosophers concurred with the divine legislator in condemning
interest on the loan of money, it became a settled dogma, just
as certain as the stability of the earth, that any Christian who lent
out money at interest, cut off from himself all hope of salvation.
Usury was one of the deadly sins charged upon the unfortunate
Albigenses. Dante places the people of Cahors, a famous banking
centre, as companions to those of the cities of the plain, in the
Inferno.
The irresistible temptation of profit, however, induced many
Christians to prefer seizing a present gain at the risk of a doubtful
penalty. The active spirit of commerce demanded the use of
Capital ; and the instinctive sense of mankind rejected the absurdity
that they who furnished the means and shared the risk of loss, should
not also share in the profits; and numerous subterfuges were
devised, so that while the name of Usury was avoided, the thing
might be done.
Nowhere were the inconvenience and absurdity of the wicked
nature of interest more strongly felt than at the fountain of infalli-
bility itself, the Papal Court; and nowhere was more ingenuity
shown to circumvent its own dogmas. A capital was collected for
the purpose of lending to the poor for a certain time on pledges
without interest To forward these objects, the Popes dispensed to
those who contributed to them, indulgences with liberal prodigality.
Burdensome vows were allowed to be commuted into donations
to lending-houses. A rich donation effaced the stain on the birth of
the children of wealthy libertines. But as these establishments
required the services of a staff of officials, and as there could be no
profits to pay them a salary, the Popes endeavoured to induce their
servants to forego mundane necessaries and comforts, in consideration
of an unlimited supply of metatemporal blessings.
Such an organisation as this, however, could be of no long
endurance. If it was a charitable thing to advance money for
nothing to persons after they had become poor, it was far more
sensible to lend them money at a moderate interest to help them to
trade, and to prevent them from becoming poor. Rich persons
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466 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. m
found that Papal indulgences were but a poor return for hard cash ;
and as in the course of business the institution incurred some loss,
they were obliged to borrow money at interest to pay their expenses.
The Popes, therefore, determined to allow the lending-houses to
receive interest for so much of their capital as was necessary to
defray their expenses. When this breach was made, the next step
was not long following. In order to attract a sufficient amount
of Capital, those who advanced money were allowed to receive
a moderate interest for its use, which was not entered on the balance
sheet as "Interest" — that would have been damnable — but was
concealed under the euphemism of " establishment charges." The
Papal bull allowed it to be given pro indemnitate.
However cunningly and speciously this " artful dodge " was de-
vised to do the thing they dared not name, the lynx-eyed divines
soon saw through the trick, and a violent ferment immediately arose,
and it was fiercely debated whether it was lawful to do evil, i.e.
take interest, in order that good might come. When the tempest
was at its height, it was quelled by a folly of equal magnitude with
itself. The Pope issued a bull, declaring these holy mountains
of piety — sacri motiti di pietd — to be legal, and damning all who-
dared to doubt it. All scruples on the subject being effectually
silenced in so satisfactory a manner, other cities hastened to follow
the example, and establish lending-houses, and they became com-
mon throughout Italy in the fifteenth century. Notwithstanding,,
however, the Papal sanction they had received, many writers and
preachers considered them to be criminal; and the dispute was
revived with considerable warmth in the sixteenth century, until
it was set at rest by Leo X., who, in the tenth sitting of the Council
of the Lateran, issued a special bull, declaring lending-houses to-
be legal and useful, and that all who dared to preach, dispute,
or write against them should be excommunicated. He also justified
them on the broad principle, which established the propriety of
interest, that those who received the benefit should share the burden
— qui commodum sentit onus quoque sentire debet.
Notwithstanding the thunders of the Vatican, and the tempests
which raged in the theological atmosphere regarding the sinful
nature of interest, the practice flourished equally among the
Christians as the Jews. The spiritual excommunications of the
Church, and the temporal punishments of princes, were equally
ineffectual to prevent men from following their natural instincts.
Edward the Confessor enacted that anyone convicted of Usury
should be stripped of all his possessions, and be declared an outlaw ;
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I.] Interest 467
as he had heard the maxim at the French Court that Usury is
the root of every crime. Every country in Europe enacted similar
penalties, and the frequency of the denunciation proves the exten-
sion of the practice. Notwithstanding all these terrible penalties,
the contest was vain, and several States were obliged to limit what
they could not prevent. James I., of Aragon, in 1228, limited
interest to 20 per cent. In the same year, at Verona, it was limited
to 12 \\ and at Modena, in 1270, to 20 per cent. An ordinance
of Philip le Bel, in 131 1, allowed 20 per cent, after the first year
of the loan. In 1336, Florence borrowed money to carry on the
war against Mastino della Scala, and paid 15 per cent. Genoa
paid 7 to 10 per cent, on its public debts. The Florentines opened
money-lending houses in numerous places; their usual rate was
20 per cent, and not unfrequently 30 or 40 per cent. At the
present day, the usual charge of the second-class bill brokers for
discounting a tradesman's bill is a shilling in the pound for three
months. This is discount at the rate of 20 per cent., or interest
at the rate of 25 per cent
Smith says that, in Bengal, money is frequently lent at 40, 50,
or 60 per cent, and the succeeding crop is mortgaged for the
payment. The most ordinary banking charges at the present day
are 12 per cent., and often higher. This is owing to the very
undeveloped state of banking in that country; and this shows
what a stimulus it would give to the industry and wealth of India
to organise an extended and solid system of banking there.
Calvin was the first great man to demonstrate the fallacy of the
popular notions of the wickedness of Usury. Upon the question
being formally submitted to his judgment, he said that it was
nowhere forbidden in scripture. The sense of the precept of Christ
had been perverted. The Law of Moses was political, and not to
be stretched beyond what men and equity would bear. In various
places the Hebrew word meant fraud in general, and could not
be applied to Usury. He said that the Jewish laws and polity were
adapted to the Jews only, and that modern society was totally
different from that of the Jews. He treats the reasons of St.
Ambrose and Chrysostom as of very slight weight, and then
says:
" Money does not beget money ! What does the sea ? What
does a house, for the letting of which I receive a rent? Does
money truly grow from the roof and walls? But the land also
produces ; and something is brought from the sea which afterwards
produces [or draws forth] money ; and the convenience of a house
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468 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
may be bought or exchanged for money. If, therefore, more profit
can be made by trading than from the produce of any farm, is
he, who has let some barren farm to an agriculturist, to be allowed
to receive rent and profit, and another man not to be allowed to
receive profit from money? And if anyone buys a farm with
money, does not that money generate money every year? You
would allow that the profit of the merchant comes from his diligence
and industry. Who doubts that unemployed money is useless ? or
that he who asks a loan from me does not intend to keep it idle
when he has got it ? Now, in truth, that profit does not arise from
the money, but from the produce. I, therefore, conclude that we
are not to judge of Usury by any particular passage of Scripture, but
only by the Law of Equity. This will be clearer by an example.
Let us suppose some wealthy man with large possessions in farms
and rents, but not much money. Suppose another man not so rich,
nor of such large possessions as the first, but yet having more ready
money. The latter being about to buy a farm with his own money,
is asked for a loan by the wealthier man. He who makes a loan
may stipulate for a rent for his money, and that the farm shall
be mortgaged to him until the principal is repaid; but until it is
repaid he will be content with the profit or usury. Why, then, shall
the first contract without a mortgage, but only for profit of the
money, be condemned, when the much harsher one of the annual
rent, with a mortgage of his farm, is approved ? And what else is it
than to treat God like a child when we judge of things by mere
words, and not from the nature of the thing itself? as if virtue and
crime could be perceived from the form of the words ? "
No one can but admire the daring good sense of this argument
in the mouth of a divine, in defence of what was then considered
one of the worst crimes men could be guilty of, and be amazed
that such arguments made scarcely impression, even in Protestant
England, for upwards of two hundred years.
Calvin put the whole subject on its true and common-sense
footing. Money, it is true, does not of itself bear increase; but
if it is employed in buying those things which do bear increase
or profit, of course he who lends the money is entitled to a share
of the increase. If a person employs his own money in agriculture
or commerce, he is entitled to any profit he can make by its use ;
and if, having no money of his own, he borrows it from someone
else, what possible crime can it be to give that person a share of
the profits?
From the examples taken from so many countries, it would
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appear that about 20 per cent, is the fair average profit which must
be paid for transactions in money which are perfectly safe.
These rates, however, only held when considerable sums were
borrowed, and in le haute commerce. When sums are advanced
to costermongers, and persons who carry on the commerce of the
streets, the rates are enormously higher. At Athens, these persons
paid 1 \ obolus a day for a drachma, i.e. 25 per cent per day, or
at the rate of 9,125 per cent, and per annum.
Gerard Malynes says that a similar trade was carried on with
money borrowed at the rate of id. per shilling per week, which
is about 433 per cent, per annum.
Boisguillebert says that the small provision dealers of Paris
throve on money borrowed at the rate of 5 sous per week the
crown, or more than 400 per cent, per annum, because, perhaps,
they sold 5 crowns' worth of merchandise per day, on which they
gained one half, or 50 per cent., which was at the rate of about
18,250 per cent, per annum ; and if they could perform this oper-
ation five or six times a week, they could well afford to pay such
interest to those who lent them the money.
Turgot cites the case of the same class of persons in his day,
who carried on their trade with money borrowed at 173 per cent,
per annum, to show the absurdity of Usury Laws.
The most remarkable instance, however, is that cited by M.
Gustave de Puynode from a speech of a member of the last
Legislative Assembly of France. He said, "Every morning the
small provision dealers received a 5 franc piece to buy the objects,
which they re-sold with a profit of 3 or 4 francs. In the evening
they repay the 5 franc piece, and give 25 centimes in addition.
They make no complaint of interest, which is yet at the rate of
1,800 per cent, per annum." Nor had they any reason to do so;
for by borrowing this 5 franc piece they made 3 francs profit, out
of which they only paid \ franc for interest. If, therefore, the rate
of interest was 1,800 per cent, per annum, the rate of profit, as-
suming the gain to be 3 francs a day, was at the rate of 21,600
per cent, per annum. And interest which is only one-twelfth part
of the profit is not unreasonable. And yet, by the law of France,
it is still punishable to take more than 6 per cent, per annum !
The progress of just legislation on this subject must always be
remarkable as an instance of the extraordinary vis inertia of estab-
lished law in this country, where no great popular passion is brought
to bear on it, even when no great interests are enlisted in its favour,
and where abstract justice and good sense are not made a popular
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470 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
cry. In 1691, Locke published his Considerations of the Conse-
quences of Lowering the Interest of Money \ in which he demonstrated
the utter futility of Usury Laws. Smith showed less than his usual
judgment in advocating their retention. But his doctrine called
forth Bentham's Defence of Usury \ as splendid an example of an
unanswerable argument as any in existence. It is said that Smith
admitted that his opinions were mistaken; but they remained
uncancelled in his work. The most eminent writers had pointed
out not only their utter futility to effect their purpose, but their
highly mischievous effect in aggravating the very evil they were
intended to prevent The experience of several commercial crises
had demonstrated that in consequence of the law attempting to
prevent persons paying more than 5 per cent for a loan of money*
they often had to pay 50, 60, and 70 per cent by the methods
they were forced to adopt In 18 19, they were investigated by
a Parliamentary Committee, and condemned. Yet it was only in
1833 that the first breach was made in them, by exempting bills which
had not more than three months to run from their operation ; and
by temporary extensions and prolongations, most other contracts
were taken out of their operation. But it was not until 1854 that
they were finally swept away from the Statute Book. Thus from
their total demolition in argument till their total demolition in fact,
a space of not less than 161 years elapsed. Such was the period
it required even in this commercial country to abolish laws equal
in absurdity to those of witchcraft. The last trial for witchcraft
in Great Britain took place in 1736. The last case of usury in
our law books was in 1856.
ISSUE.
To Issue an Instrument is to deliver it to some person who
thereby acquires a Right of Action on it against all the parties to it
If a person draws, accepts, or indorses a bill for the simple
accommodation of another person, and without any consideration
moving to him, and then delivers the bill to him, he draws, accepts,
or indorses the bill as the case may be ; but he does not Issue the
bill. The bill is not Issued until it is delivered to some person
who is entitled to sue all the parties to it
It is usually supposed that the word Issue is restricted to paper
documents. Thus a Bank of Issue is supposed to be only a bank
which issues Notes ; and that banks which do not issue Notes are
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not Banks of Issue. But this doctrine is wholly inadequate and
erroneous, and causes much misapprehension of the nature and
effects of banking. When a banker purchases money, or Rights
of Action from his customers, he does it exclusively by creating a
Credit in his favour in his books, which is termed a Deposit
That is he Issues Rights of action to his customers, and gives them
the right to transfer these Rights of Action to any other persons they
please, and promises to pay the transferees as he would his own
customers. The customers might formerly either ask the banker to
give them his own Notes for such an amount of their Deposits as
they required ; or transfer the Right of Action by Cheque. Now it is
clear that the nature and effects of banking are exactly the same,
whether Banking Credits are transferred by Notes or Cheques.
Since 1844, only those banks which were issuing their own Notes at
that date were permitted to continue to do so under strict limitations,
and all new banks founded after that date were prohibited from
issuing Notes ; and could only have their issues, or deposits, trans-
ferred by means of Cheques. In recent times Banks which issue
their own Notes have been termed Banks of Issue, and those which
do not do so are supposed not to be Banks of Issue, and to be
Banks of Deposit. This, however, is a profound delusion. All
Banks are Banks of Issue. The sole function of a Bank is to issue
circulating Credits. All that the law has done is to restrict and
prohibit one form of circulating this Credit. But it leaves the other
form wholly untouched. Thus Banks have now the right of
purchasing Rights of Action, or Debts, by means of creating Debts
of their own to any amount they please. Now these Debts, or
Deposits, are all Issues, because when once issued their holders
have a Right of Action against the banker. That is to say all banks
have still the right of unlimited Issues as much as they ever had,
which may be somewhat surprising news to some people.
LABOUR.
Labour in Economics is any exertion of ability or Thought
which is wanted, demanded, and paid for.
The Economists steadfastly refused to admit that Labour is
Wealth, because they alleged that to admit Labour to be Wealth
would be to admit that Wealth can be created out of nothing ; and
they said that ex nihilo nihil fit.
But Aristotle laid down the definition — " By the term Wealth we
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472 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
mean Anything whatever whose value can be measured in
Money."
Now Labour can neither be seen nor handled, nor is it transfer-
able from hand to hand ; but it may be bought and sold ; its value
may be measured in Money ; and therefore it is Wealth by Aristotle's
definition.
There is a very remarkable work of antiquity extant, which is
the earliest treatise that we are aware of, discussing an Economical
question. It is a dialogue called the JSryxias, or On Wealthy and is
frequently bound up with the works of Plato. It is attributed to
*3£schines Socraticus, one of the most distinguished disciples of
Socrates. Critics, however, unanimously pronounce it to be spurious,
without being able to assign it to any definite author. High
authorities consider that it was probably written in the early Peri-
patetic period.
This dialogue is to the following effect: The Syracusans had
sent an embassy to Athens, and the Athenians had sent a return
embassy to Syracuse. As the Athenian ambassadors were entering
the city on their return, they met Socrates and a party of his friends,
with whom they entered into conversation. Erasistratus, one of
the envoys, said that he had seen the richest man in all Sicily.
Socrates immediately started a discussion on the nature of Wealth.
Erasistratus said that he thought upon the subject as everyone
else did, and that to be wealthy meant to have much money.
Socrates asked him what kind of money he meant, and he instanced
the money of several countries. At Carthage they used as money
leather discs, in which something was sewn up — but nobody knew
what it was — and he who possessed the greatest quantity of this
money at Carthage was the richest man there. But at Athens
he would be no richer than if he possessed so many pebbles from
the hill. At Lacedaemon they used iron as money, and that
useless iron. He who possessed a great quantity of this iron at
Lacedaemon would be rich; but anywhere else it would be
worth nothing. In ^Ethiopia, again, they used carved pebbles
as money, which were of no use anywhere else. Among the
nomade Scythians a house was not Wealth, because no one
wanted a house, but greatly preferred a good sheepskin cloak.
He showed that if anyone could live without meat and drink,
they would not be Wealth to him, because he did not want
them.
Socrates showed that Money is only Wealth because it is
Exchangeable; because it can purchase other things. Where
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it is not exchangeable, where it cannot purchase other things, it
is not Wealth.
He then asked why some things are Wealth, and other things
are not Wealth? Why are some things Wealth in some places,
and not in other places? And at some times, and not at other
times? He showed that whether a thing is Wealth or not,
depends entirely upon human Wants and Demands; that every-
thing is Wealth which is Wanted and Demanded. That things
are only Wealth, xpr0f*aTa> where and when they are x/"F*/Aa, that
is, where they are Wanted and Demanded; and that nothing is
Wealth when and where it is not Wanted and Demanded.
Thus we see that though some persons might be puzzled at the
meaning of the word Wealth, there is no possibility of mistake when
we refer to the Greek, because XPll^t which is one of the most
usual words in Greek for Wealth, comes from xp<*o/a<u, to want
or demand. Consequently the word xPlf10^ Wealth, means simply
anything whatever which is wanted and demanded, no matter what
its nature or its form may be
It is, then, human Wants and Desires which alone constitute
anything Wealth. Anything whatever which people want and
demand, and are willing to pay for, is Wealth. Everything, there-
fore, which can be bought and sold is Wealth, whatever its form
or its nature may be ; and anything which no one wants or demands
is not Wealth.
Socrates shewed that Gold and Silver are only Wealth because
they enable us to obtain or purchase what we want and demand.
And that if anything else will enable us to purchase what we want
and demand in the same way that Money does, it is Wealth, for
the very same reason that Gold and Silver are.
He then instanced persons who gained their living by giving
instruction in the various Sciences. He said that persons are
able to purchase what they want by giving this instruction,
just as they are able to do with Gold and Silver. Consequently,
he said that the Sciences are Wealth — at kviar-qixat xPlfulTa
ovo-ai; and that those who are masters of such Sciences are so
much the richer — vkowruArcpol elan.
Now in instancing the Sciences as Wealth, that is of course a
general term for Labour; because Labour in Economics is any
exertion of human ability or Thought, which is wanted, demanded,
and paid for. Thus the author of this dialogue showed that
Labour is Wealth.
Socrates shewed that the Mind has wants and demands as well as
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474 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
the body ; and that the things which are wanted and demanded
for the mind and are paid for, are equally Wealth, as those
things which satisfy the wants and demands of the body and
are paid for.
Thus each of the great professions, Law, Physic, Surgery,
Engineering, and many others, are great Estates which produce
Utilities, which are as much Wealth as the Utilities which satisfy the
demands of the body.
Now Labour cannot be seen nor handled ; it cannot be transferred
by manual delivery ; but it may be bought and sold ; its Value may
be measured in Money ; therefore it satisfies Aristotle's definition of
Wealth. If any person wants any other person to do any Labour or
Service for him, and pays him for it, its value is measured in money,
as exactly as if it were a material chattel. Suppose that a person
gives fifty guineas for a watch or a horse, and also fifty guineas for
the opinion of an eminent advocate ; the value of the opinion is
measured in money as exactly as the value of the watch or the horse;
and, therefore, they are all equally Wealth.
So if a person earns an income of some thousands a year as the
Manager of a great mercantile company — Banking, Insurance,
Railway, or any other — his Services are as much Wealth to him, as
corn or cattle to a farmer ; or goods to any other trader.
Hence the author of this dialogue showed that Personal Qualities
in the form of Labour or Services, are Wealth; which no one in
subsequent ages perceived till Adam Smith ; and thus he anticipated
by about 2,176 years one of the great extensions which Adam Smith
gave to the Science.
Modern Economists include Labour under the term Wealth.
It has been shown that the Economists expressly excluded Labour
or Services from the term Wealth.
But in accordance with the author of the Eryxias, Smith enumer-
ates under the term Fixed Capital — "The acquired and useful
abilities of all the inhabitants or members of the society. The
acquisition of such Talents, by the maintenance of the acquirer
during his education, study, or apprenticeship, always costs a real
expense, which is a Capital fixed and realised as it were in his person.
These Talents, as they make part of his Fortune, so they do likewise
that of the society to which he belongs."
So also he says — " The property which every man has in his own
Labour, as it is the original foundation of all other property (?) so it
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is the most sacred and inviolable. The Patrimony of a poor man
lies in the strength and dexterity of his hands."
J. B. Say dwelt with emphatic force on the doctrine that Personal
Qualities are Wealth. Among many other passages he says (Cours,
Considerations Gknkrales) — "He who has acquired a Talent at
the price of an annual sacrifice, enjoys an accumulated Capital,
and this Wealth, though Immaterial, is nevertheless so little
fictitious, that he daily exchanges the exercise of his art for gold
and silver."
" Since it has been proved that Immaterial Property, such as
Tenants and acquired Personal Abilities, form an integral part of
Social Wealth
" You see that Utility, under whatever form it presents itself, is the
source of the value of things ; and what may surprise you is that this
Utility can be created, can have Value, and become the subject
of an Exchange without being incorporated with any material object
A manufacturer of glass places value in sand; a manufacturer of
cloth places it in wool ; but a Physician sells us a Utility without
being incorporated in any matter. This Utility is truly the fruit of
his studies, his Labour, and his Capital. We buy it in buying his
opinion. It is a real product, but Immaterial."
Say calls all species of Labour and Services Immaterial
Wealth, because they are vendible products, but not embodied in
any matter. This is an excellent name, and we shall adopt it to
distinguish this order of Economic Quantities from material things
and abstract rights.
We must, however, guard against an erroneous expression of Say's.
He says that the manufacturers of glass and sand place value in sand
and wool. This, however, is an error. The artisans place their
Labour in sand and wool, but it is the Demand of the consumer
which alone gives value to the glass and the cloth. So a physician
may have all the medical knowledge in the world But if no one
was ill there would be no use and no demand for his services, and
therefore they would have no value. It is the illness, or the Demand
of the patient, which alone gives value to the knowledge and services
of the physician.
Senior has a long and eloquent passage to the same effect
{Political Economy, p. 10) — " If the question whether Personal
Qualities are articles of Wealth had been proposed in classical
times, it would have appeared too clear for discussion. [We have
already seen that the question was discussed in classical times.] In
Athens everyone would have replied that they, in fact, constituted
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476 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
the whole value of an lptyvypv opyavov. The only differences in
this respect between a freeman and a slave are — first, that the
freeman sells himself, and only for a period, and to a certain extent :
the slave may be sold by others, and absolutely ; and, secondly, that
the Personal Qualities of the slave are a portion of the wealth of his
master : those of the freeman, so far as they can be made the subject
of exchange, are part of his own Wealth. They perish, indeed, by
his death, and may be impaired or destroyed by disease, or rendered
valueless by any change in the custom of the country which shall
destroy the Demand for his services [thus Senior sees that value
depends on Demand, and not upon Labour] ; but subject to these
contingencies they are Wealth, and Wealth of the most valuable
kind. The amount of revenue derived from their exercise
in England far exceeds the rental of all the lands in Great
Britain."
So also he says — "Even in our present state of civilisation,
which, high as it appears by comparison, is far short of what may
be easily conceived, or even of what may be confidently expected,
the Intellectual and Moral Capital of Great Britain far exceeds
all the Material Capital, not only in importance, but in produc-
tiveness. The families that receive mere wages probably do not
form a fourth part of the community ; and the comparatively larger
amount of wages, even of these, is principally owing to the Capital
and Skill with which their efforts are assisted and directed by the
more educated members of the society. Those who receive mere
rent, even using that word in its largest sense, are still fewer ; and
the amount of rent, like that of wages, principally depends on the
knowledge by which the gifts of Nature are directed and employed.
The bulk of the national revenue is Profit, and of that Profit the
portion which is merely interest or Material Capital probably does
not amount to one-third. The rest is the result of Personal
Capital, or, in other words, of Education.
"It is not in the accidents of the soil, in the climate, in the
existing accumulation of the instruments of production, but in the
quantity and diffusion of this Immaterial Capital that the wealth
of a country depends. The climate, the soil, and the situation of
Ireland have been described as superior, and certainly not much
inferior, to our own. Her poverty has been attributed to the want
of Material Capital ; but were Ireland now to exchange her native
population for seven millions of English North-countrymen, they
would quickly create the capital that is wanted ; and were England,
north of the Trent, to be peopled exclusively by a million of
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L.] Labour 477
families from the West of Ireland, Lancashire and Yorkshire would
still more rapidly resemble Connaught Ireland is physically poor,
because she is morally and intellectually poor. And while she
continues uneducated, while the ignorance and the violence of
her population render persons and property insecure, and prevent
the accumulation, and prohibit the introduction of Capital, legis-
lative measures, intended solely and directly to relieve her poverty,
may not, indeed, be effectual, for they may aggravate the disease,
the symptoms of which they are meant to palliate, but undoubtedly
will be productive of no permanent benefit. Knowledge has been
called power : it is far more certainly Wealth. Asia Minor, Syria,
Egypt, and the northern coast of Africa were once among the
richest, and are now among the most miserable, countries in the
world, simply because they have fallen into the hands of a people
without the sufficiency of the Immaterial sources of Wealth to keep
up the Material ones."
So Mill says {Prime, of Pol. Econ. bk. i. ch. iii-> — "The skill
and energy and the perseverance of the artisans of a country are
reckoned part of its Wealth no less than its tools and machinery " —
and why not the skill and energy and perseverance of other classes
as well as of artisans ? He also says — " Acquired capacities, which
exist only a means, and have been called into existence by labour,
fall exactly, as it seems to me, within that designation. n
So Madame Campan inscribed over the Hall of Study in her
establishment at St. Germain :
"Talents are the ornament of the rich and the Wealth of the
poor."
So Cardinal Newman says — " If Gold is Wealth, power, influence,
and if Coal is Wealth, power, influence, so is Knowledge."
Thus Knowledge, Labour, Services, though they can neither be
seen nor handled, nor transferred by manual delivery, can be bought,
sold, and exchanged; their value can be measured in Money ; they
possess the quality of Exchangeability; and, therefore, they are
Wealth.
And if Knowledge, Labour, and Services, by the acknowledgment
of all Economists, are Wealth, what becomes of the doctrine with
which text-books of Economics are still loaded and infected — that
all Wealth is the product of land, labour, and Capital ?
It is, therefore, now admitted by all Economists of note that the
industrial faculties of all the people are National Wealth.
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478 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
LEND— LOAN.
It is unfortunate for literary Economists that the words " Lend "
and " Loan " in English are ambiguous, and are used to denote
two operations of an essentially distinct nature.
When persons hear for the first time such an expression as
" Credit is Capital/' they are apt to be startled ; and they think
that such a doctrine is as much as to say that if one person " lends "
another his book, his watch, or his horse, that makes two books,
or two watches, or two horses.
The whole difficulty arises from a want of knowledge of Mer-
cantile Law; and from not being aware that, unfortunately, the
English words "Lend," "Loan," and "Borrow" are ambiguous,
and are used to denote two operations of an essentially distinct
nature.
There are two kinds of Rights — (i) the Right of absolute
Property; (2) the Right of mere temporary Possession.
And there are two distinct kinds of " Loan " — the one in which
the Right of Possession only for a limited time is given to the
"Borrower," but the Right of Property remains in the "Lender,"
and there is no new creation of Property, and the identical thing
" lent " is returned to the " Lender.0
The other, in which the " Borrower" acquires the actual Right
of Property in the thing "lent," and the "Lender" acquires in
exchange for it only the Right, or Property, to demand only an
Equivalent for the thing "lent," both in quantity and quality,
but not the identical thing " lent." In this class of " Loan " there
is always a new creation of Property.
The Oommodatum, or rb xpw*I1€V0V'
There are some things which can be lent, and the borrower can
enjoy their use without acquiring the actual Property in them;
and after having enjoyed their use, he can restore the identical
things "lent" to their owner.
Thus, if a person " lends " his horse, or book, or watch, or his
carriage to his friend, his friend can ride the horse, or read the
book, or use the watch or the carriage, without acquiring the
Property in them, which remains with the "lender"; and after
he has enjoyed their use, he can restore the identical horse, or
book, or watch, or carriage to its owner.
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L.] Lend — Loan 479
In such a case, the " lender " only grants a certain limited Right
of "Possession" and "Use" of the thing lent to the "borrower";
but he does not cede the Right of Property in them to him. He
retains in himself the Right of Property and Possession in the thing
"lent," and can reclaim it at any time he pleases, without any
notice to the "borrower." In such cases there is no Sale or
Exchange; and there is no new Property created. In such cases
the relation of Creditor and Debtor does not arise between the
parties. And there being no Sale or Exchange, there is no Econ-
omic phenomenon; consequently such transactions, no.t being acts
of commerce, do not enter into the Science of Economics.
Such a "loan" is termed, in Roman Law, a Commodatum,
and in Greek Law, rb xpy<r"fl*vovi because the "Use" only of
the thing "lent" is granted to the "borrower," but not the
"Property" in it.
The Mutuum — rb Bdveurfia or 8av€iov.
But there is another kind of "Loan," in which the things
"lent" cannot be enjoyed unless they are consumed, destroyed,
or alienated.
Thus, if a person "borrows" such things as bread, wine, coals,
oil, meat, or other things of a similar nature, he cannot enjoy their
use without consuming or destroying them; and they are both
lent and borrowed with the knowledge and consent of both parties,
for the purpose of being consumed and destroyed.
Hence, from the very nature of the case, the " borrower " must
acquire the Right of Property in such things when "lent"; and
what he undertakes to do is to return, not the identical things lent,
but an Equivalent amount of other things of the same nature,
equal in quantity and quality to the things "lent"
So when a person "borrows" Money, he cannot enjoy its use
unless he is able to exchange it away for other things. Hence
the person who borrows Money must, from the very necessity of
the case, acquire the Property in it. And what he undertakes
to do is, not to restore the identical Money lent, but an equivalent
amount of Money, at the stipulated time.
So if a person borrows a postage stamp, he can make no use
of it without affixing it to a letter, and so destroying it Hence
he must acquire the Property in it. And what he undertakes to
do is, not to restore the identical stamp lent, but another of equal
value.
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480 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. IL
In all cases, therefore, of the "Loan" of such things as bread,
wine, oil, meat, coals, &c, Money, and also of postage stamps, and
things of a similar nature, the lender cedes the Property in the
thing "lent" to the borrower; and he acquires in exchange the
Right to demand, and the borrower incurs the Personal Duty to
render, an equivalent amount of the things "lent," but not the
identical things.
In ail such cases a new Property is created; a Contract or an
Obligation is created between the Lender and the Borrower ; and
they stand in the relation of Creditor and Debtor.
All such transactions are Sales or Exchanges ; they are all acts of
commerce, or Economic phenomena; and they all enter into the
Science of Economics.
A " Loan " of this nature is termed, in Roman Law, a Mutuum,
and in Greek Law a Savctov or 8ai/€«rfia.
To contract a loan of this nature is Mutuare or 8av€i£eu>.
The word Loan, therefore, comprehends two transactions of an
essentially distinct nature ; but the essential feature of a " Loan "
is that it is always the same person who restores the identical thing
lent, or an equivalent.
The Roman Jurists said that Mutuum is derived from quod de
meo tuum fit — because from being my Property it becomes yours.
Modern scholars, however, repudiate this etymology, however
plausible it may seem. The Romans and the Greeks knew very
little of their own language.
Modern scholars say that Mutuum is connected with mutare,
to exchange; as deciduus is with deddo; and dividuus is with
divide.
But though the etymology may be fanciful, as are so many others
given by Roman and Greek writers, it exactly expresses the fact In
the Loan of the Mutuum there is always an exchange of Properties.
In all cases of the Mutuum, or the Savctov, the Property in the thing
lent is ceded to the borrower ; the relation of Creditor and Debtor
is created between them ; and the Right which the Creditor acquires
to demand back an equivalent in exchange for the thing lent, is the
Credit or the Debt; or as Ortolan says, the Price of the thing
lent.
The reader must therefore observe that every Loan of Money
whatever, no matter between what parties, public or private, is a
Mutuum ; and is a Sale or an Exchange ; an act of commerce ;
and therefore an Economic phenomenon.
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L.] Lend — Loan 481
Theophilus on the Mutuum, Sdveiov or Sdvcurfw, and the
Commodation or to xpw*iJL€V0V'
This distinction is so important that we may cite a passage from
the paraphrase of the Institutes of Justinian, by Theophilus, one of
the Professors of Law who were charged with the compilation of the
Institutes, because it is more full and distinct than the corresponding
passage in the Institutes :
"A real Obligation is contracted by an act, or by the manual
delivery of something counted out ; and this includes the Mutuum,
or the 8dv€iov. A thing is a Mutuum where the Property in it
passes to the person who receives it ; but he is bound to restore to
us, not the identical thing delivered, but another of the same Quality
and Quantity. I said so that the receiver becomes proprietor of it,
that I might exclude the Commodatum and the Depositum;
for in these latter the receiver acquires no Property. But he must
be bound to us to exclude the Donation ; for he who receives one
acquires the Property, but is not bound to us. I said he must
restore not the identical things lent, but others of a similar Quality
and Quantity, that I might not deprive him of the use of the
Mutuum. For a person takes a Mutuum, that he may use the
things for his own purposes, and return others instead of them. For
if he were obliged to give back the same things, it would be useless
to borrow them.
" But all things are not taken as Mutua ; but only those which
consist in weight, number, and measure. In weight, as gold, silver,
lead, iron, wax, pitch, tin ; in measure, such as oil, wine, and corn ;
in number, such as Money ; and in short, whatever we deliver with
this .intent in number, weight, and measure, so as to bind the
receiver to return to us, not the same things, but others of the same
Nature and Quantity. Whence also it is called Mutuum ; because
it is transferred by me to you, with the intent that it should become
your Property (quodde meo tuumfit).
" But the real Obligation includes the Commodatum ; as if any
one were to ask me to lend him a book, and I lend it But
the Commodatum differs widely from the Mutuum. For the
Mutuum transfers the Property; but the Commodatum does not
transfer it ; and therefore the borrower (Commodatarius) is bound to
restore the very thing lent."
So it is said in Roman Law (Digest, xii. 1, 2, 2) — " But it is called
giving a Mutuum, because from being my Property it becomes
2 1
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482 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
yours {quod de meo tuum fit) ; and, therefore, if it does not become
your Property no Obligation is created. "
But on the contrary with respect to the Comtnodatum (Digest, xiii.
6? 8^ g) — « We retain the Property and the Possession of the thing
lent (ret commodate) No one by lending a thing (ammo-
dando) gives the property in it to him who borrows it."
Thus the whole misconception, which is so common among
English writers, has arisen from the English words " Lend," " Loan,"
and "Borrow," being used td denote two operations of essentially
distinct natures.
The French language is equally faulty : the words louer, emprunter,
and emprunt are equally applied to both kinds of Loan.
But the distinction is clearly pointed out both in Roman and
Greek Law, and the Latin and Greek languages have distinct words
for each operation.
In the Code Napoleon the Commodatum is termed Frit a usage,
and the Mutuum, Frit de consommation.
All commercial Loans are Mutua, not Commodata: every Loan
of Money is, in reality, a Sale or Exchange, in which a New
Property is created, which is called a Credit, or a Debt And
when the Loan is repaid it is another exchange, by which the New
Property is extinguished.
No one who had the simplest knowledge of the elementary
principles of Roman and Greek Law, or of Mercantile Law, would
ever have committed the mistake of confounding the distinction
between the Loan of Money and the Loan of an ordinary chattel,
such as a horse, or a book, or a watch.
Hence these things can only be the subject of a Mutuum, which
consist in pondere, numero, et mensurd, or which can be estimated
genetically in weight, number, and measure. Such things are
. termed in Roman Law Quantitates, because equal quantities of
bread, wine, oil, coals, etc., are as good as another equal quantity of
the same things of the same quality; or one sum of 100 sovereigns
is equal to another sum of 100 sovereigns ; or one postage stamp Is
always equal to another of the same denomination.
But also the Digest says tnutud vice funguntur : one quantity
serves the same purpose as another quantity. From this expression
mediaeval jurists termed them Res Fungibiles ; and in modern
English Law they are termed Fungibles.
In English Law the former kind of Loan, or the Commodatum, is
said to be returnable in specie, because the identical things lent are
returned; the latter kind of Loan, or the Mutuum, is said to be
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M.] Market Price of Gold and Silver 483
returnable /'* genere, because only things of the same' kind are
returned.
It is much to be regretted that the English language has not two
separate words to denote these two kinds of Loan, like the Latin and
the Greek, because the double meaning of Lend, Loan, and Borrow
has been the cause of great misconception among uninformed writers
as to the nature of Credit and Banking.
MARKET PRICE OF GOLD AND SILVER
The Mint Price of Gold and Silver is merely the number of the
Coins into which a certain quantity of Gold or Silver is divided.
Consequently, so long as the Coins retain their full legal weight of
metal, they are always of the value of that quantity of Bullion.
But when Coins have been some time in circulation they must
necessarily lose some of their weight from the mere wear and tear of
daily use, even if they be not subjected to any evil practices, such
as clipping, which used formerly to be done to a great extent before
the system of milling was adopted.
But these Coins may circulate for a considerable time in a
country, and lose a good deal of their weight without losing their
current value. People are so accustomed to the sight of a particular
coin that, unless they be money dealers, they do not stop to inquire
too curiously whether it is of the legal weight or not In fact, when
coins have been a long time in use, few persons know what their
legal weight is. Many, for instance, do not associate the idea of a
pound with any particular weight of bullion ; and thus, in exchange
for products, coins may pass at their nominal value long after they
have lost much of their legal weight.
As Posthumus says in Cymbeline —
" 'Tween man and man they weigh not every stamp,
Though light take pieces for the figure's sake."
But when coins are exchanged for bullion the case is different.
The value of coins is measured weight for weight with bullion;
consequently, if the coins have lost their legal weight, a greater
number of them must be given than if they were of full legal weight.
Thus, if the Mint Price of Silver were 5s. 2d. per ounce, that
quantity of coin ought, by law, to weigh an ounce. But if the coins
have lost their legal weight, it is clear that more than 5s. 2d. must
be given to buy an ounce of silver. It might, perhaps, take 6s. of
the current coin, or even more, to buy an ounce of silver.
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484 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
The quantity of coin at its full legal weight, which is equal in
weight to an ounce of silver, is termed its Mint Price, but the
quantity of the Current coin, which is actually equal to it in weight,
is called its Market Price ; and as, if the current coins have lost
their legal weight, more of them must be given than if they were of
full legal weight, the Market Price will apparently be higher than
the Mint Price ; and this is called a Rise of the Market Price above
the Mint Price.
Suppose that the Mint Price of Silver is 5s. 2d. per ounce, and
the Market Price of Silver is 6s. per ounce, that means that 6s. of
the current coin is only equal in weight to what 5s. 2d. ought to be,
and therefore the current coin is deficient about one-sixth of its legal
weight : thus it is clear that the rise of the Market Price above the
Mint Price is due to the Depreciation of the Coinage.
Hence we obtain this fundamental law of the Coinage :
When the Market Price of Bullion rises above the Mint Price,
the Excess is the Proof and the Measure of the Depreciation
of the Coinage.
In fact, the apparent rise of the Market Price of Bullion is due
exactly to the same cause as has made the Mint Price of Silver
apparently rise from £1 in the days of William I. to ^3 6s. at the
present time. It is merely that the current coin has lost its legal
weight, or more coins of the same name have been cut out of the
Pound weight of Bullion.
The Market Price of Bullion could never fall below the Mint
Price unless there were more Bullion in the coins than there ought
to be by law ; and in such a case, if it could be imagined to happen,
the difference of the Market Price below the Mint Price would
indicate the excess of the coins above their legal weight.
THE MINT PRICE OF GOLD AND SILVER
As the very purpose of coining is to certify that the pieces of
Bullion are of a certain definite weight and fineness, it is evident
that a fixed weight of Bullion must be divided into a fixed number
of Coins.
The Number of Coins into which a given Quantity of Bullion
is divided by Law is called the Mint Price of that Quantity of
Bullion.
The Mint Price of Bullion is, therefore, simply the amount of
Coin which is equal to any quantity of Bullion, weight for weight.
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M.] The Mint Price of Gold and Silver 485
By the law at present in force, forty pounds' weight of Standard
Gold Bullion are divided into 1,869 coins, called Sovereigns or
Pounds : hence one pound weight of Gold Bullion is coined into
£46 14s. 6d. j or, as the value of Gold is measured by the ounce,
one ounce of Gold Bullion is coined into £$ 17s. io£d. ; and this
is termed the Mint Price of Gold.
The legal weight of the Pound, or Sovereign, is 5 dwts. siii grns.,
or 11377? 8™*- °f Pure Gold. Sovereigns which fall below 5 dwts.
2$ grns., and half-sovereigns which fall below 2 dwts. 13J grns.,
cease to be legal tender.
In the time of William the Conqueror the pound weight of Silver
Bullion was coined into 240 pennies : hence the Mint Price of Silver
was £1 per pound. But in the time of Elizabeth the pound weight
of Silver was coined into 744 pennies : hence, as 240 pennies were
stiU called a £9 the Mint Price of Silver then became jQ$ 2s. a
pound, or 5s. 2d. an ounce.
To alter the Mint Price of Bullion merely means an Alteration
in the Legal Weight of the Coin.
To suppose that the Mint Price of Bullion could vary is manifestly
as great an error as to suppose that a hundredweight of sugar could
be a different weight from 112 separate pounds' weight of sugar; or
that the quantity of wine in a hogshead could differ in quantity from
the same quantity of wine in bottles ; or that a loaf of bread could
alter in its weight by being cut up into slices.
// is not an Economic Error to Fix the Mint Price of Bullion,
We must now say a word as to an error which is by no means in-
frequent It is now acknowledged that it is a great Economic error
to fix the Price of any articles. It used formerly to be the custom
to fix by law the price of multitudes of commodities and wages.
But all such attempts have long been abandoned as futile and
mischievous. It is sometimes contended that it is an equal error to
Fix the Mint Price of Gold.
But those who affirm this, overlook a very important considera-
tion. The word " Price," except in the single instance of " Mint
Price," always denotes the quantity of the article which is used as a
measure, which is given for an article of a different nature. Thus
we may say that the Price of a bushel of com is 5 s.; where the
Silver, the substance in which the Price of the corn is measured, is
of a different nature from the corn.
But in the expression " Mint Price " of Bullion, it always means
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486 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
the Value of Bullion in Coin of the same metal. Thus the Mint
Price of Gold Bullion means its weight in Gold Coin; the Mint
Price of Silver Bullion means its weight in Silver Coin.
Hence by the very definition, the Mint Price of Gold and Silver
Bullion merely means the identical quantity, or weight, of Gold and
Silver Bullion ; and by the very nature of things the Mint Price of
Bullion is a fixed quantity. If the law requires an ounce of Gold to
be coined into £$ 17s. io£d., that amount of Coin must be of the
same value as an ounce of Gold, no matter whether Gold becomes
as plentiful as iron, or as scarce as diamonds ; for that quantity
of Coin is always equal in weight to an ounce of bullion, whatever
be the abundance or scarcity of Bullion. The value of Gold may
vary with respect to other things; it may purchase more or less
bread, or wine, or meat, at one time than another; but it is
absolutely impossible that an ounce weight of Gold in the form
of Coin can differ from an ounce weight of Gold in the form of
Bullion, so long as there is no cost in changing the metal from one
form into the other. To suppose that it could, would be as
irrational as to suppose that because bread became very scarce or
very abundant, it could differ from itself in weight when cut up into
slices ; or that a cask of wine could differ from itself when drawn off
into bottles.
The Mint Price of Gold, then, is nothing more than a public
declaration of the weight of metal which the Law requires to be in
the Coin. An alteration in the Mint Price of Bullion means an
alteration of the standard weight of the Coin; and would be the
same thing in principle as an alteration in the standard yard measure.
Those who ridicule the idea of having the Mint Price of Gold fixed,
should, to be consistent, ridicule the idea of having the standard
yard measure fixed.
MONEY.
In the early ages of the world there was no such thing as Money.
When persons traded they exchanged the products directly with each
other ; as is the custom at the present day with savage people.
Thus in Iliad vii. 468, we have :
N-fci S'4k A*f}/jj«Ho irap£oTa<r<w dtpov Ayowcu
Mev £/>' ohdfarro tcdprj KO/tfotrres * Axcuof,
dXXot fUv xaAx<?, AXXot tf aXQwri ffi84jptpf
dXXoi M ^iiwr, AXAot 8* cu/rpfft fiUaaiw,
dXXoi 8* &v8paT68ctffft
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(university)
M^l Money V^UFOBNjA^W
From Lemnos' isle a numerous fleet had come,
Freighted with wine
All the other Greeks
Hastened to purchase, some with brass, and some
With gleaming iron ; some with hides.
Cattle and slaves.
This exchange of products against products is termed Barter*
And the inconveniences of this mode of trading are obvious. What
haggling and bargaining it would require to determine how much
leather should be given for how much wine ! How many oxen,
or how many slaves !
In the Homeric poems there is not the faintest allusion to any-
thing of the nature of Money. But even in those days it had been
discovered that it would greatly facilitate commerce, if the products
to be exchanged were referred to some common measure of value.
There are several passages in the Uiad which show that while
commerce had not advanced beyond Barter, such a standard of
reference was used. We find that various things were frequently
estimated as being worth so many oxen. Thus in Iliad, ii. 448,
Pallas's shield, the ^Egis, had one hundred tassels, each of the
value of one hundred oxen. In Uiad, vi. 231, Homer laughs at
the folly of Glaucus, who exchanged his golden armour, worth one
hundred oxen, for the bronze armour of Diomede, worth nine oxen.
In Iliad, xxiiL 703, Achilles offered as a prize to the winner in
the funeral games in honour of Patroclus, a large tripod, which
the Greeks valued among themselves at twelve oxen; and to the
loser a female slave, which they valued at four oxen.
But it must be observed that these oxen did not pass from hand
to hand like Money. The state of Barter continued; just as at
the present day it is quite common to exchange goods according
to their value in Money, without any actual Money being used.
On the Necessity for Money.
The necessity for Money arises from a different cause. So long
as the products were equal in value, there would be no need
for Money. If it could always happen that the exchanges of
products or services were equal, there would be an end of the
transaction.
But it would often happen that when one person required some
product or service from another person, that other person would
not require an equal amount of product or service from him in
return, or even, perhaps, none at all.
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488 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
If, then, such a transaction took place between persons with such
an Unequal result, there would remain over a certain amount of
product or service, due from the one to the other.
And this would constitute a Debt; that is to say, a Right, or
Property, would be created in the person who had received the
lesser amount of service or product, to demand the Balance due
at some future time. And at the same time a correlative Duty
would be created in the person of the other, who had received
the greater amount of product or service, to pay or render the
balance due when required.
Now, among all nations and persons who exchange or traffic with
each other, this result must inevitably happen ; persons want some
product or service from others, while those others want either not
so much, or even, perhaps, nothing at ail, from them. And it is
easy to imagine the inconveniences which would arise if persons
could never get anything they wanted, unless the persons who could
supply these wants wanted something equal in value in return at
the same time.
In process of time all nations hit upon this plan ; they fixed upon
some material service, which they agreed to make always exchange-
able among themselves, to represent the amount of Debt
That is, if such an Unequal exchange took place among persons,
so leaving a balance due from one to the other, the person who
had received the greater amount of service or product gave an
equivalent quantity of the Universally Exchangeable Merchandise
to make up the balance, so that the person who had received the
lesser amount of service or product might obtain an equivalent
from someone else.
Suppose a wine dealer wants bread from a baker, but the baker
wants either not so much wine, or even no wine at all, from the
wine dealer. The wine dealer buys the bread from the baker,
and gives him in exchange as much wine as he wants, and makes
up the balance by giving him an amount of this Universally
Exchangeable Merchandise equivalent to the deficiency; and if
the baker wants no wine at all, he gives him the full equivalent
of the bread in this Merchandise.
The baker wants, perhaps, meat or shoes, but not wine. Having
received this Universally Exchangeable Merchandise from the wine
dealer, he goes to the butcher or the shoemaker, and obtains from
them the equivalent of the bread he has sold to the wine dealer.
Hence the satisfaction that was due to him from the wine dealer
is paid by the butcher or shoemaker.
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This Universally Exchangeable Merchandise is termed Money ;
and these considerations show its fundamental nature. Its function
is to represent the Debts which arise from unequal exchanges
among men, and to enable persons who have rendered any sort
of services to others, and have received no equivalent from them,
to preserve a record of these services, and of their Right and
Title to obtain an equivalent product or service from someone
else, when they require it.
It must, therefore, be observed that Money performs a double
function; it is an Equivalent for the product or service due at
the time of the Exchange, and it is also a Right or Title to obtain
an equivalent Satisfaction at some future time due to the possessor.
And it is to this double function that much of the complexity of
the subject of Money is due.
Aristotle, Bishop Berkeley, the Economists, Adam Smith,
Thornton, Bastiat, Milt, and Jurists, have seen the true
Nature of Money.
The true Nature of Money is now apparent It is a Right
or Title to demand a product or service from some one else.
Now when a person accepts Money in exchange for products or
services rendered, he can neither eat it nor drink it, nor clothe
himself with it ; nor is it any species of Economic satisfaction for the
service he has done. He only agrees to accept it in exchange for
the services he has rendered, because he believes, or has confidence,
that he can purchase some satisfaction which he does require, at any
time he pleases. Money is therefore what is termed Credit.
A whole series of writers, from the earliest times, have perceived
that the true nature of Money is a Right or Title to acquire a
satisfaction from some one else ; i.e. a Credit.
Thus Aristotle says (M'comach. Eth. ; B.V.): vw\p Se /jLtWoxxrrjs
akkayfjs (ii vvv [irffev Scircu, 6ti eorcu iav $€t)0jj) rb vofiur/ut otov
'Eyyvrfr/js kvrnv rj/uv. 8ei yap tovto fepovri elvai Aa/fciv.
" But with regard to a future Exchange (if we want nothing at
present, that it may take place when we do want it), Money is as
it were our Security. For it is necessary that he who brings it should
be able to get what he wants?
So a London Merchant, F. Cradocke, in the time of the Common-
wealth, says — " Having now pointed out the inconvenience of these
metals (Gold and Silver) in which the medium of commerce, or
Universal Credit, hath universally been placed
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490 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. IL
" Now that Credit is as good as Money will appear ; it is to be
observed that Money itself is nothing but a kind of Security,
which men receive upon parting with their commodities, as a ground
of Hope or Assurance, that they shall be repaid in some other
commodity ; since no man would either sell or part with any for the
best Money, but in hopes thereby to procure some other commo-
dities or necessary."
So an old pamphleteer, in 1710, saw the same truth (An Essay on
Public Credit, p. 25) — "Trade found itself unsufferably straightened
and perplexed for want of a general specie of a complete intrinsic
worth, as the medium to supply the Defect of Exchanging, and
to make good the balance, where a nation, or a market, or a
merchant, demands of another a greater quantity of goods than
either the buyer hath goods to answer, or the seller hath occasion to
take back."
So the great metaphysician, Bishop Berkeley, says in his Querist:
" 2 1. Whether the other things being given, as climate, soil, &c, the
wealth be not proportioned to industry, and this to the circulation of
Credit, be the Credit circulated by what Tokens or Marks
whatever.
" 24. Whether the true idea of Money as such, be not altogether
that of a Ticket or Counter ?
" 25. Whether the terms crown, livre, pound sterling, are not to be
considered as exponents or denominations; and whether Gold,
Silver, and Paper, are not Tickets and Counters for reckoning,
recording, and transferring such denominations ?
" 35. Whether Power to command the Industry of others \ue.
Credit] be not real wealth ? And whether Money be not in truth
Tickets or Tokens, for recording and conveying such Power?
And whether it be of consequence what material the Tickets are
composed of ?
" 426. Whether all circulation be not alike a Circulation of Credit,
whatsoever medium — Metal or Paper — is employed ; and whether
Gold be any more than Credit for so much Power?"
See also Queries, 441, 449, 450, 459, 475, and many others.
It is one of the special merits of the Economists that they clearly
saw the true nature of Money. Among many others, Baudeau, one
of the most eminent of them, said (Introduction a la Philosophic
Economique) — "This coined Money in circulation is nothing, as I
have said elsewhere, but effective Titles on the general mass of
useful and agreeable enjoyments, which cause the well-being and
propagation of the human race.
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" It is a kind of Bill of Exchange, or Order, payable at the
will of the bearer.
" Instead of taking his share in kind of all matters of subsistence,,
and all raw produce annually growing, the sovereign demands it in
Money, the effective Titles, the Order, the Bill of Exchange, &c."
So Edmund Burke speaks of Gold and Silver {Reflections on the
French Revolution) as — "The two great recognised Species that
represent the lasting Credit of mankind."
So Smith says (bk. ii. ch. 2) — "A Guinea may be considered as
a Bill for a certain quantity of necessaries and conveniences upon
all the tradesmen in the neighbourhood."
So Henry Thornton, the eminent banker, one of the authors of
the Bullion Report, says (An Enquiry into the Nature and Effects
of the Paper Credit of Great Britain, p. 80) — " Money of every
kind is an Order for goods. It is so considered by the labourer
when he receives it, and it is almost instantly turned into money's
worth. It is merely the Instrument by which the purchaseable
stock of the country is distributed with convenience and advantage
among the several members of the community."
This great fundamental truth was also very clearly seen by Bastiat.
He says ((Euvres, vol. ii. " Maudit Argent," p. 80) — "You have a
crown piece. What does it mean in your hands ? It is, as it were,
the witness and the proof that you have at some time done work
which, instead of profiting by, you have allowed society to enjoy in
the person of your client. This crown piece witnesses that you have
rendered a service to society, and, moreover, states the value of it.
It witnesses, besides, that you have not received back from society a
real equivalent service, as was your Right. To put it into your
power to exercise this Right when and where you please, society, by
the hands of your client, has given you an Acknowledgment, or
Title, or Order of the State, or Token — a crown piece, in short,
which does not differ from Titles of Credit, except that it carries
its value in itself (?) ; and if you can read with the eyes of the mind
the inscription it bears, you can see distinctly these words — ' Pay to
the bearer a service equivalent to that which he has rendered to
society, value received and stated, proved and measured by that
which is on me.'
"After that you cede your crown piece to me. Either it is a
present, or it is in exchange for something else, if you give it to me
as the price of a service. See what follows. Your account as
regards the real satisfaction with society is satisfied, balanced, closed.
You rendered it a service for a crown piece ; you now restore it, the
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492 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
crown piece, in exchange for a service : so far as regards you, the
account is settled. But I am now just in the position you were in
before. It is I, now, who have done a service to society in your
person. It is I who am the Creditor for the value of the work
which I have done for you, and which I could devote to myself.
It is into my hands now that this Title of Credit should pass, the
witness and proof of this social Debt. You cannot say that I am
the richer; because if I have to receive something, it is because I
have given something."
So again he says {Harmonies Economises, " Capital," p. 209) —
"It is enough for a man to have rendered services, and so have
the Right to draw upon society, by the means of exchange, for
equivalent services. That which I call the means of Exchange is
Money, Bills of Exchange* Bank Notes, and also Bankers. Who-
ever has rendered a service, and has not received an equal satis-
faction, is the bearer of a Warrant, either possessed of value like
Money (?), or of Credit like Bank Notes, which gives him the Right
to draw from society when he likes, and under what form he will, an
equivalent service."
So again he says {Harm. Econ. Organisation Naturelle, p. 25),
" I take the case of a private student. What is he doing in Paris ?
How does he live there ? It cannot be denied that society places
at his disposal food, clothing, lodging, amusements, books, means
of instruction — a multitude of things, in short, of which the pro-
duction would demand a long time to be explained, and still more
to be effected. And in return for all these things, which have
required so much labour, toil, fatigue, physical and intellectual
efforts, so many transports, inventions, commercial operations, what
services has the student rendered to society? None ! He is only
preparing to render some. Why, then, have these millions of men
who have performed actual services, effectual and productive, aban-
doned to him their fruits?
" This is the explanation. The father of this student, who was
an advocate, a physician, or a merchant, had formerly rendered
services — it may be to the people of China — and had received,
not direct services, but Rights to demand services, at the time,
in the place, and under the form which might suit him best It
is for these distant and anterior services that society is paying
to-day ; and wonderful it is ! If we follow in thought the infinite
course of operations which must have taken place to attain this
result, we shall see that everyone must have been remunerated
for his pains; and that these Rights have passed from hand to
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M.] Money 493
hand, sometimes in small portions, sometimes combined, until in
the consumption of this student the whole has been balanced. Is
not this a strange phenomenon ?
" We should shut our eyes to the light, if we refused to acknow-
ledge that society cannot present such complicated transactions,
in which the civil and penal laws have so little part, without obeying
a wonderfully ingenious mechanism. This mechanism is the
object of Political Economy."
So Mill says, " The pounds or shillings which a person receives
weekly or yearly are not what constitutes his income; they are
a sort of Ticket or Order, which he can present for payment at
any shop he pleases, and which entitles him to receive a certain
value of any commodity that he makes choice of. The farmer
pays his labourers and his landlord in these Tickets, as the most
convenient plan for himself and them."
It is so clearly understood that Money is, in reality, nothing more
than the Right or Title to demand something to be paid or
done, that some Jurists expressly class it under the Title of In-
corporeal Property.
Thus Vulteius says:
" Nummus in quo non Materia ipsa, sed Valor attenditur."
" Money in which not the Material, but the Value is regarded*'
That is, we desire or demand other things for the direct satis-
faction they give us; but we only desire Money as the Means
of purchasing other things.
Gold and Silver, therefore, may be justly termed Metallic
Credit
Thus it is seen that writers of all classes— Philosophers, Mer-
chants, Bankers, Economists, and Jurists are all perfectly agreed
on the nature of Money. It represents Indebtedness, or Services
Due to the owner of it; and it represents the Right or Title
which its owner has to demand some product or service, in recom-
pence for some service he has done to someone else.
On Substances used as Money.
The necessity for Money has arisen among all nations, the most
barbarous as well as the most civilised. As soon as the members
of any community, however barbarous, begin to exchange among
themselves, Unequal Exchanges must necessarily arise; and there-
fore Indebtedness is created. And some substance is hit upon
to represent these services due, and the Rights which its holders
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494 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. IL
have to demand some product or service, in satisfaction of the
services they have done to someone else.
A great many different substances have been used by different
nations to represent this universal want. The Hebrews, we know,
used Silver. No money was in use in the times of the Homeric
poems; but some time after them, though we cannot say when,
copper bars or skewers were used as Money throughout Greece, which
Pheidon, of Argos, in the eighth century B.C., superseded by silver
coins. The Ethiopians used carved pebbles ; the Carthaginians used
leather discs, with some mysterious substance sewn up in them.
Throughout the islands of the Eastern Ocean, and in many parts
of Africa, shells are still used. In Thibet, and some parts of China,
little blocks of compressed tea are used as Money. In the last
century, dried cod was used in Newfoundland, sugar was used in
the West Indies, tobacco in Virginia. Smith says that, in his day,
nails were used as Money in a village in Scotland. In some of
the American Colonies, powder and shot ; in Campeachy, logwood ;
and among the North American Indians, belts of wampum were
used as Money. We read of another people who used cowries
as small change, and the skulls of their enemies for large sums;
and many other things have been used in various countries for
the same purpose.
But when we consider the purposes for which Money is required,
it is easily seen that no substance possesses so many advantages
as a Metal. The use of Money being to preserve the record of
services due to its possessor for any future time, it is clear that
Money should not alter by time. A Money of dried cod would not
keep very long, nor would it be easily divisible. Not many bankers
would care to keep their accounts in dried cod, tobacco, sugar,
logwood, or dead men's skulls.
One of the first requisites of Money is that it should be easily
divisible into very small fragments, so that its owner should be able
to get any amount of service he pleases at any time. Taking these
requisites into consideration, it is evident that there is no sub-
stance which combines them so well as a metal. Metal is uniform
in its texture; it can be divided into any number of fragments, each
of which shall be equal in value to any other fragment of the
same weight, and, if required, these fragments can always be
re-united, and form a whole again, of the value of all its parts,
which can be said of no other substance.
All civilised nations, therefore, have adopted Metal as Money;
and of metals, Gold, Silver, and Copper have been chiefly preferred.
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The Chinese invented Paper Money.
We have now to treat of a Material used as Money, which, in
later times at least, has had incomparably more influence in the
world than all the gold and silver — namely, Paper.
The Romans invented the business which, in modern language,
is termed Banking. The Roman bankers invented Cheques and
Bills of Exchange, but they did not invent Bank Notes. The use
of Cheques and Bills of Exchange by the Romans was extremely
narrow, restricted to the immediate parties, and they were never
made transferable, as far as we are aware, so as to get into general
circulation and serve the purposes of Money.
The invention of Paper to be used as circulating Money is due
to the Chinese.
We believe that it has been alleged that there were Bank Notes
in China more than 1000 years B.C.
We come down, however, to better authenticated times. In the
beginning of the reign of Hiantsong, of the Dynasty of Thang,
about the year 807 a.d., there was a great scarcity in the country.
The Emperor ordered all the merchants and rich persons to bring
their money into the public treasury, and in exchange for it gave
them Notes, called fey-thsian, or flying money. In three years,
however, this money was suppressed in the capital, and was current
<*ily in the provinces. In 906 a.d. Thaitsu-siu, the founder of the
Soung Dynasty, revived this practice. Merchants were allowed to
deposit their cash in the public treasuries, and received in return
Notes called pian-thsian% or current Money. The convenience of
this was so great that the custom quickly spread, and in 997 there
was paper in circulation to the amount of 1,700,000 ounces of
silver, and in 102 1 it had increased to 2,830,000 ounces. At this
period, a company of sixteen of the richest merchants were per-
mitted to issue Notes payable in three years. But at the end of
that time the company was bankrupt, which gave rise to much
public distress and litigation. The Emperor abolished the Notes
of this company, and forbade any more joint Stock Banks to be
founded. Henceforth, the power of issuing Notes was kept in the
hands of the Government. These Notes were also called kiao-tsu,
and were of the value of an ounce of silver. In 1032 there were
kiao-tsu to the value of 1,256,340 ounces in circulation. Sub-
sequently, banks of this nature were set up in each province, and
the Notes issued by one provincial bank had no currency in any
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496 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
other. These were said by some to be the first Bank Notes on
record, though some allege that there were earlier ones ; that is to
say, Notes issued in exchange for money, or convertible into money,
and not Paper Money, or paper created without any previous deposit
of specie. Besides these Bank Notes, the Chinese issued Paper
Money to a vast amount. (Klaproth, Journal Asiatique, vol i. p. 256.)
It would be too long to give here a complete history of the Paper
Money of China, but we have given some full notices of it else-
where (Dictionary of Political Economy, Art Currency, p. 666).
But it may interest our readers to know the process of its
manufacture.
About 1288, Marco Polo travelled in China, and discovered the
existence of this Paper Money. In Book xi. c. 8, he gives an
account of its manufacture. He says that it was made in Kambalu.
The inner rind of the mulberry was steeped and pounded in a
mortar, and then made into paper, resembling that made from
cotton, but quite black. It was then cut into pieces nearly square,
but of different sizes. The smallest were of the value of a denier
tournois ; the next of a Venetian groat ; others of two, five, and ten
groats; others, one to ten gold besants. Several officers had to
subscribe their names and place their seals on each Note, which was
then stamped with the royal seal dipped in vermilion. Counter-
feiting was a capital offence. It had then a forced currency, and no
one dared to refuse it on pain of death. Caravans of merchants
arrived with their goods, which they laid before the King, whb
selected what he pleased, and paid them in this money. When any
one wished to exchange old money for new, it was done at the
mint, at a charge of three per cent If any one wanted gold or
silver for manufacture, they could obtain bullion at the mint in
exchange for the paper. Marco Polo mentions many cities where he
saw this money in circulation.
Credit and Paper, either payable in specie, or inconvertible, now
forms the great Circulating Medium, or Currency of the world, and
as we shall show, amounts to nearly one hundred times the quantity
of specie in this country.
The Fundamental Concept of Monetary Science.
The preceding considerations now -enable us to perceive the
Fundamental Concept of Monetary Science.
We have seen that writers of all classes have agreed as to the funda-
mental nature of Money. It represents Debts which are due to
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persons who have done services to others, and have received no
equivalent services in return. It merely represents the Right to
demand these equivalent services when they please ; and its special
function is to measure, record, and preserve these Rights for future
use ; and to transfer them to anyone else.
If all the services exchanged in society exactly balanced, there
would be no need of money.
Supposing, then, tfiat there was nothing but Metallic Money in
use, the following axiom is evident :
" The Quantity of Money in any country represents the
Quantity of Debt which there would be, if there were no Money."
But as we have seen (Credit) that in civilised countries, these
Debts, or Rights, are recorded in the simple form of Rights against
particular persons, whether written or unwritten, as well as in
Metallic Coin, which are rights against the general community,
the terms Circulating Medium, or Currency, include these Debts in
both forms.
Hence it is clear that the Circulating Medium, or Currency,
represents nothing but Transferable Debt; and that whatever
represents Transferable Debt is Circulating Medium, or Currency;
whatever its nature or its form may be, either Metal, or Paper,
or anything else.
Consequently this proposition necessarily follows :
" Where there is tw Debt there can be no Currency."
All erroneous theories of Currency have been founded on hot
perceiving the fundamental nature of Currency; and the greatest
monetary disasters the world has ever seen have been produced by
violating this fundamental axiom.
On the Distinction between Money and Credit
It has now been shown that it is agreed on all hands that Money
and Credit are essentially of the same nature ; Money being only the
highest and most general form of Credit. They are each a Right,
or Tide, to demand some service or product in future.
Nevertheless, there is a very important distinction between Money
and Credit, which must now be pointed out.
In Economics all Money is Credit, but all Credit is not Money.
No one can compel any one else to sell him anything for Money
or Credit. When, then, any one has taken Money in exchange for
anything, it is in reality only Credit ; because he only takes it in the
belief that he can exchange it away for something else.
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But suppose that a sale has taken place, and that a Debt has
been incurred thereby, public policy requires that the Debtor should
be able to compel the Creditor to accept something in discharge of
his Debt It would cause infinite misery if Creditors could arbi-
trarily refuse anything they pleased in payment of their Debts.
Hence, in all countries the Law declares that if a Debt has been
incurred, the Debtor can compel the Creditor to accept some
specific thing in payment of it. •
Whatever that Something is which a Debtor can compel a
Creditor to accept in payment of a Debt which has been incurred,
is Money or Legal Tender.
From this it follows that some things may be Money in some
cases, and not in others.
Gold Coin in this country is Money, or Legal Tender, to any
amount in all cases.
Silver is only Money, or Legal Tender, to the amount of 40s. If a
Creditor chooses to accept of payment of a larger amount than 40s.
in silver, it is entirely of his own free-will.
In England, as between the public and the Bank of England,
Bank Notes are nothing but Credit. The Bank cannot compel any-
one to accept its Notes, and any holder of its Notes can compel the
Bank to pay them in gold on demand.
Between private persons a Bank Note for £$ is not Money, or
Legal Tender, for that exact amount of Debt. But in Debts above
^5, Bank Notes are Money or Legal Tender. But even this is so
only so long as the Bank pays its Notes in cash on demand. If the
Bank were to stop payment, its Notes would cease to be Legal
Tender in any case.
In Scotland and Ireland, Bank of England Notes are not Legal
Tender in any case.
If two persons are mutually indebted to each other in equal
amounts at the same time, each may compel the other to accept the
Debt he owes, as Legal Tender for the Debt which is due to him.
Each Debt is therefore Money, or Legal Tender, in respect to the
other, and neither party can demand specie from the other.
So if a Creditor voluntarily accepts payment from his Debtor in a
country bank note without indorsement, he makes it Money, even
though the bank should fail ; or if he voluntarily accepts a Cheque
from his Debtor, and has the Credit transferred to his own account,
he makes it Money, and it is a final closing of the transaction, even
though the bank should fail immediately after.
There is no Necessary Relation between the Quantity of
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M.] Money 499
Money in any country, and the Quantity of Commodities and
their Price.
We have now to demonstrate a proposition of the greatest import-
ance in Economics, and on which errors of the most serious nature
are very prevalent.
Many writers on Economics have supposed that the quantity of
Money in a country bears some necessary relation to the quantity
of commodities in it, and many. more think that the prices of
commodities are determined by the ratio which the quantity of
Metallic Money bears to the quantity of commodities. That this
is a very serious error may easily be shewn.
Suppose that A and B are mutually indebted; that A owes B
;£io, and B owes A ^13. Then it is quite clear that their Debts
may be settled in three different ways :
1. Each may send a clerk to demand payment from the other in
money ; this method would require ^23 in money to discharge the
two debts.
2. A may send ^10 to B to discharge his debt, and B may send
back to A the same ;£io, with £$ additional to discharge his debt;
this method would require ^13 to discharge the two debts.
3. They may meet together, and set off their mutual amounts of
debt, and pay only the difference in Money ; by this means the two
debts would be discharged by the use only of £$.
Now it is quite clear that a very different quantity of Money
would be required to carry on any amount of business in a country,
according as either of these methods of settling debts was adopted.
Between the first and the third there is a difference of ^20. These
^20 would not influence prices, but would only be required to
settle debts in a clumsy way. So that it is clear that by a simple
change in the method of doing business, £20 might be withdrawn
from its employment, and set free to be applied to new transactions.
The adoption of the third method of settling debts in the place of
the first, would in no way affect prices, because these amounts of
Money would have to be retained for the sole purpose of settling
Debts, and would in no way enter into the sale of commodities,
and therefore in no way affect their prices. At the same time
it would greatly alter the ratio between Money and commodities.
Now, when these transactions are multiplied by millions, it is
evident that there may be large amounts of money in a country
which may exercise no influence on prices; and the ratio between
Money and commodities may vary greatly, according as one or other
of these methods of doing business is adopted.
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500 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms • [Bk. II.
Now, if a country which habitually used the first method, were to
change its custom, and adopt the third method, it is very evident
that a very large quantity of Money might be disengaged from its
usual employment, and applied to promote new operations; and
therefore, for all practical purposes, it would % be equivalent to
an addition to the previously existing quantity of Money; as
by this improvement in the method of settling Debts, many times
the same quantity of business might be done on the same basis
of specie. Hence the various methods of economising the use of
Money are, for all practical purposes, to be considered as an increase
of the resources of the nation.
The various methods by which this principle is applied are
described under Clearing House, Compensation, Novation.
Reason why Paper can supersede Honey.
The reason why Paper can supersede Money is now apparent.
An order to receive a coat could never serve as a substitute for a
coat, because it could never serve the same purpose as a coat An
order to receive meat, or bread, or wine, could not supersede meat,
bread, or wine, because it cannot serve the same purpose as meat,
bread, or wine; and so on regarding orders for other material
chattels. An order for such things can never serve as a sub-
stitute for the things themselves, because they are heterogeneous
quantities of a totally different nature, and cannot serve the same
purpose as the things themselves.
But an Order to pay Money can serve the same purpose as Money,
because they are homogeneous quantities. A piece of Money, like a
piece of Paper, is nothing more than an Order to receive a useful
material chattel or a service. And, provided that the order is sure
to be obeyed on demand, it is of no consequence whether it is of
Metal or Paper.
Consequently, the Exchange of Paper for Money is nothing more
than an Exchange of a particular Right for a general Right
As Daniel Webster, the eminent American jurist, said : " Credit is
to Money what Money is to goods." That is, Credit is an Order
for Money, and Money is an Order for goods.
To be useful, Money must be exchanged away for other things,
just as Paper is. And if Paper can be exchanged away for exacdy
the same things that money can, Paper has exactly the same Value
as Money. As the Italians say — " Che oro vale, oro h " — " That
which is of the Value of Gold, is Gold."
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N.] Negative Quantities in Economics 501
NEGATIVE QUANTITIES IN ECONOMICS.
As it is now universally admitted that Economics is a Physical
Science, it necessarily follows that there must be Negative Quantities
in Economics as there are in all other Physical Sciences. But what
are Negative Quantities in Economics ?
We have shown that the most striking and fatal defect of the
current works on Economics is that they take no notice of that
colossal mass of property which consists in Abstract Rights, and is
termed in law Incorporeal Property, or Incorporeal Wealth, which in
recent times has increased at a very much greater rate than Cor-
poreal, or Material, Property, and may now be estimated to amount
in value to scores of thousands of millions of money.
We have shown under Annuities and Property that this
class of Property, which includes Credit, the Funds, Shares in
Commercial Companies, Copyrights, Patents, &c, may be justly
termed Negative Economic Quantities, because it may all be
bought and sold or exchanged ; its value may be measured in money \
just as material chattels may.
But there is another class of Quantities which have long been
termed by Mathematicians and Jurists Negative Quantities,
namely Debts (passive). And how are Debts (passive) Negative
Quantities ?
We have now to investigate the meaning of terming Debts Nega-
tive Quantities.
On the Errors made by some Mathematicians in terming Debts
Negative Quantities.
The juridical theory of Credit worked out by the Roman jurists is
sufficient for all practical purposes. They explained how Credits,
Rights of Action, or Debts are created, how they may be trans-
ferred, and how they are extinguished. .But this is not sufficient for
the full scientific theory of the subject, because they treated these
Credits almost entirely from the Creditor's side.
But in every Obligation there are two parties, the Creditor and
the Debtor.
Now when two persons are bound together by an Obligation,
such as that of Debt, it is usual to term the Creditor the Active,
or Positive, Agent, and the Debtor the Passive, or Negative,
Agent
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502 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Hence, to complete the full scientific theory of Credit, it is
necessary to develop it from the Debtor's, or Negative, side, as
well as from the Creditor's, or Positive, side.
Accordingly for the last 150 years — from the days of Maclaurin at
least — mathematicians have been in the habit of giving Debts as an
example of Negative Quantities. But they have entirely failed
in giving an explanation of the term Negative as applied to Debts,
which can be received as suitable for Economic Science.
The explanation usually given is this : A man's Property may be
considered as Positive, and his Debts as Negative; subtract his
Debts from his Property, and the remainder, if any, is his substance,
or Capital.
And as the national Capital is the aggregate Capital of all the
individuals in it, according to this doctrine, in order to find the
quantity of Capital in the country, all the floating debts in it would
have to be subtracted from all the money in it, and the remainder
would be the national Capital (in money).
Now, as we shall show hereafter, it may be conjectured that the
floating debts in the country are not less than ^6,000,000,000, and no
one estimates the specie in the country at more than jQi 20,000,000,
it would be rather a difficult matter to perceive how ^6,000,000,000
of floating debts are to be subtracted from ;£i 20,000,000 of hard
money.
So Peacock and Tait, two very distinguished mathematicians, say,
"If property possessed or due could be denoted by a number or
symbol with a positive sign, a Debt would be indicated by a number
or symbol with a Negative Sign, or conversely. Such affections of
Property are correctly symbolised by the signs + and - , since they
possess the inverse relations to each other which these signs require.
For if to a person A there be given a certain property or sum of
money with, or added to, a Debt of equal amount, his Wealth, or
Property, remains the same as before. "
Now, in a certain sense, these modes of statement have some
semblance of truth. If a person were going to retire from business,
he would call in and discharge his debts or liabilities, and the
remainder, if any, would be his substance. But then this result
could not be attained without an exchange, because his outstanding
debts could not be extinguished without being brought to him to be
exchanged for money.
But such a mode of statement is quite unsuitable for Economics.
Economics is purely the science of Exchanges, and has only to do
with Quantities while they exist ; and all Exchangeable Quantities
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N.] Negative Quantities in Economics 503
are Economic Quantities while they exist, and are the subject of
commerce. Debts, or Credits, are a species of property of the
most gigantic magnitude, and are the subject of the most colossal
Commerce of modern times. They exceed in magnitude every
other species of property, except the land itself. And what are
they to be substracted from ? The mode of statement by Peacock
and Tait is entirely inapplicable to the business of banking, as I
have shown in my Theory of Credit
The fact is that mathematicians have completely mistaken the
application of the signs + and - in Economics, from a want of
knowledge of Mercantile Law and practical business.
Mathematicians are accustomed to treat of Quantities and Opera-
tions; and as these may each be of opposite or inverse natures,
they apply the signs + and - to them.
The error which mathematicians fall into in applying the signs
+ and - in Economics is that they apply them to Property,
whereas they affect Persons.
As will be shown hereafter, Persons may stand in Inverse, or
Opposite, relations to each other as well as Quantities and Opera-
tions; and Persons who stand in these Inverse, or Opposite,
relations may be indicated by the signs + and -, as well as
Quantities and Operations.
Every student of Mercantile Law will at once perceive Peacock's
error in the above extract, which is shared by other mathematicians,
because Credits, or Debts, are not Jura in re ; they are Jura in
personam, and the Passive, or Negative, Debt is not Money owed
by the Debtor, but the abstract Personal Duty to pay money.
Two Algebraists of the highest eminence, Euler and Peacock,
have attempted to explain the meaning of the Negative Sign as
applied to Debts, but they have both failed from a want of know-
ledge of the principles of Mercantile Law.
Error of Euler in terming Debts Negative Quantities.
Euler says1: — "The manner in which we calculate a person's
Property is an apt illustration of what has just been said. We
denote what a man really possesses by Positive numbers, using or
understanding the sign + ; whereas his Debts are represented by
Negative numbers, or by using the sign - . Thus it is said of any
one that he has 100 crowns, but owes 50 ; this means that his real
possessions amount to 100-50, that is to say, 50 crowns.
1 Algebra, p. 7.
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504 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
"As Negative numbers may be considered as Debts, because
Positive numbers represent real possessions, we may say that
Negative numbers are less than nothing. Thus, when a man has
nothing in the world, and owes 50 crowns, it is certain that he has
50 crowns less than nothing ; for if any one were to make him a
present of 50 crowns to pay his Debts, he would still be at the
point o, though really richer than before."
It will be seen that the statement in the first part commits exactly
the error we have just pointed out.
Suppose that the person has 100 crowns, and is bound to pay 50
crowns at the end of the year, then his Property would, according
to Euler, be stated as 100 crowns - 50 crowns. But it would be
quite inaccurate to say that his Property was only 50 crowns,
because he has the 100 crowns, which are his absolute Property, to
dispose of, or trade with, exactly as he pleases in the meantime, and
he is only bound to have 50 crowns at the end of the year to dis-
charge his Debt.
Moreover, as we have shown, the Debt is the abstract Personal
Duty to pay, and it does not come into existence until the time for
payment has come. Consequently, the person is not in Debt at all
until the end of the year ; and, therefore, the Debt, which does not
exist, cannot be subtracted from his Property.
But the owner of the Debt may put it into circulation, and it
may be sold, transferred, or exchanged, and produce all the effects
of money, any number of times, until it is paid off and extinguished.
So that there may be the 100 crowns, and- the Right to demand the
50 crowns, circulating simultaneously in commerce.
Moreover, as the 100 crowns are solid money, and the Debt of
50 crowns is only the Personal Duty to pay money, it is quite
evident that an abstract Personal Duty cannot be subtracted from a
solid sum of hard cash.
Furthermore, by the Law of Continuity, if we diminish the
period of payment gradually and continuously to o, and the Debt
becomes payable on demand, that in no way alters the general
principles of the subject. A Duty to pay, though due on demand,
cannot be subtracted from a material sum of money. The Debtor's
money remains absolutely intact until he voluntarily buys up the
Right of Action against himself of his own free will, giving 50 crowns
in exchange for it.
The expression is to be read in this way: he possesses 100
crowns, but coupled with the Duty to pay 50 crowns at some given
time.
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N.] Negative Quantities in Economics 505
In the second paragraph, when the Debtor possesses o crowns,
and owes 50 crowns, he is said to have 50 crowns less than nothing.
This clearly means that he is under the Duty to pay 50 crowns,
and has o crowns to pay them with.
Now, suppose that being in such a position, as Euler says, some
one makes him a present of 50 crowns to pay his Debt with. He
pays the Debt : he is 50 crowns richer than he was before ; but his
Property is now o. This is an example that + x + = + .
Thus Euler is right as far as he goes ; but he has stated only one-
half of the case. Because there is another combination of Alge-
braical signs which gives + , namely, - x - ; and there is another
method in commerce of arriving at the same practical result.
As any person whatever may give the Debtor 50 crowns to pay
his Debt with, let us suppose that the Creditor does so. Then
having received the 50 crowns in a present from his Creditor, the
Debtor hands them back to his Creditor in payment of the Debt,
which is then extinguished. The Debtor is now, as in the former
case, richer by 50 crowns than he was before, and his property is
now o.
The same result may be attained in another way. Suppose that
the Creditor simply Releases his Debtor from his Debt, then, as
in the former case, he would be 50 crowns richer than he was before,
and his Property would now be o.
Now if Crowns be + , and to give is also + , then a Debt is - ,
and to Cancel, or take away, is also — . Consequently to give
Money is + x + , and to Release, or Cancel, a Debt is - x - , and
the position of the Debtor will be exactly the same after each
operation.
This shows that the Release of a Debt is, in all circumstances,
equivalent to a Payment in Money.
Thus it is seen that in Commercial, as in all Algebra, + x + =
- x - , an example of the Permanence of Equivalent Forms, and a
principle of the most momentous importance in modern commerce.
Error of Peacock in terming Debts Negative Quantities.
Peacock, Dean of Ely, who published the most philosophical
treatise on Algebra in his day, and who was the first to introduce
the Modern Theory of Signs into a standard treatise for popular
use, endeavoured to apply the Theory of Signs to the Theory of
Credit. But he has fallen into the errors so carefully provided for
in the Digest, and by all jurists since.
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506 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
He says1 — " A merchant possesses a pounds, and owes b pounds ;
his substance is, therefore, a - b9 when a is greater than b.
" But since a and b may possess every relation of value, we may
replace b by a - c, or a + c, according as a is greater or less than b ;
in the first case we get —
a-b = a-(a-c) = c,
and in the second —
a-b = a-(a+c)= -c.
If, therefore, c expresses his substance or property when solvent, -c
will express the amount of his Debts when insolvent; and if from
the use of + and - , as signs of affection or quality in this case, we
pass to their use as signs of operation, then inasmuch as —
a + (-c) = a-c, and a-(-c) = a + e,
it follows that the addition of a Debt ( - c) is equivalent to the
subtraction of property, c9 of an equivalent amount; and the sub-
traction of a Debt ( - c) is equivalent to the addition of Property, c,
of an equal amount ; and consequently it appears that the subtrac-
tion of a Debt, in the language of symbolical Algebra, is not its
Obliteration or Removal, but the change of its affection, or
character, from Money, or Property, Owed, to Money, or Property,
Possessed."
Peacock, as is seen, arrives at the conclusion that the subtraction
of a Debt is equivalent to the addition of Property. The conclusion
is right, as we have seen above ; but his method of arriving at it is
entirely erroneous, as has been repeatedly pointed out by Jurists.
The Negative Sign - is not a sign affecting the Money, or the
Property, of the Debtor, but it is a sign affecting his Person.
If such a distinguished mathematician as Peacock was had only
reflected, he could not have failed to perceive that his interpretation
of the Negative Sign, as applied to Debts, could not be correct,
because the signs + and - always refer to Similar Quantities, but
of opposite Qualities. Now the sign + represents the Creditor's
Personal Right to demand a sum of Money, and a material sum
of Money can, by no possibility, be the Inverse of an Abstract
Personal Right It must be something which is the Inverse of a
Right, and the Inverse of a Right is a Duty.
The modes of statement adopted by Euler and Peacock are open
to the following objections : —
i. They violate the fundamental principles of the Philosophy of
Science.
1 Algebra^ second edition, vol. ii p. 15.
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N.] Negative Quantities in Economics 507
Because Economics, being the Science of Commerce, or Ex-
changes, all questions and problems in Economics must be stated
in the form of an Exchange. Economics has nothing to do with
addition and subtraction.
2. They violate the principles of Jurisprudence.
Because a Creditor has no Right, or Title, to any of the
Property of his Debtor, he has only a Right, or Claim, against
his Person.
Peacock's mode of statement confounds the distinction between
a Trustee and a Debtor. A person who merely holds a sum of
money to which another person has a Right, is a Trustee, or
Bailee, and not a Debtor. The property of a Debtor belongs
absolutely to himself, and he only parts with it by his own voluntary
consent.
There is no such thing in Law as Money, or Property, owed.
There is only the Abstract Personal Duty to pay or do something.
3. They violate the elementary principles of Mathematics.
Because an abstract Personal Duty cannot be subtracted from
a sum of hard cash.
A sum of solid Money cannot be the Inverse, or Negative, of an
abstract Personal Right
In Economics the signs + and - do not affect Property, but
only Persons.
In Economics the signs + and - , as signs of Operation, in no
case whatever signify addition and subtraction, because addition
and subtraction are no part of Economics. What they do mean
will be shown a little further on.
The result which Peacock has arrived at is correct, but his course
of reasoning is entirely erroneous. The result is not produced in
the way in which he says it is, but just exactly in the way in which
he says it is not We shall presently show how the result is arrived
at, by a totally different course of reasoning.
Error of Thornton and Cernuschi on Credit
We have shown the error of two very distinguished Algebraists,
in their interpretation of the Negative Sign, as applied to Debts.
We have now to point out the error of a plausible view, held by two
distinguished bankers.
It has been asserted that Credit adds nothing to the resources of
the world, because it is neutralised by something else.
Any person practically conversant with commerce, and seeing
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508 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
that the enormously greater portion of commercial operations are
carried on by Credit, would think it a strange doctrine that Credit
adds nothing to the resources of a nation,' or of an individual-
It is now universally agreed that the only true definition of Wealth
is "Anything which has Purchasing Power." The Wealth of an
individual or a nation is their "Purchasing Power n; and their
Purchasing Power is their Money, together with their Credit.
Credit is, therefore, Purchasing Power over and above, and addi-
tional to Money; and hence it must be a resource cumulative to
Money.
Some writers, however, have maintained the contrary doctrine in
a very plausible way, which we have now to examine.
Henry Thornton, an able man, a distinguished banker, and one
of the authors of the Bullion Report, says : l " Paper constitutes,
it is true, an article on the Credit side of the books of some men,
but it forms an exactly equal item on the Debit side of the books
of others. It constitutes, on the whole, neither a Debit nor a
Credit . . . The use of Paper does not, therefore, introduce any
principle of delusion into that estimate of property which is made
by individuals/1
So another eminent banker, M. Cernuschi, says : 2 " The balance-
sheet of every individual contains three accounts, existing goods,
Credits, and Debts. But if we collected into one all the balance-
sheets of everyone in the world, the Debts and Credits mutually
neutralise each other, and there remains but a single account —
existing goods.
" The totality of goods, therefore, forms the general inventory.
There is the first matter of exchange. The Debts and Credits are
subsidiary matters. Debts and Credits are reciprocally transmitted
as goods are transmitted ; but however great, or however small, they
may be, and through whatever hands they may pass — Credits for
some, Debts for others — they add nothing to, and take nothing
away from the general inventory."
The argument of Thornton and Cernuschi is simply this: Suppose
A to have ;£ioo in Money, and also a three months' bill of ^50
on B ; suppose B to have ;£ioo in Money, and at the same time to
have accepted a Bill for ^50 at three months to A. Then A's
property would be stated thus, ;£ioo + ^50 ; B's property would
be stated thus, ;£ioo - ,£50.
1 An Enquiry into the Nature and Effects of the Paper Credit of Great Britain ,
p. 20.
* Mecanique de V Echange, p. 1.
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N.] Negative Quantities in Economics 509
Now the argument of these writers is this : The + ^50 and the
- £5° balance and neutralise each other, and the result is o ;
which, according to them, is the same thing as saying that these
Quantities do not exist at all.
This view might, perhaps, at first sight, seem somewhat
specious; but a very little reflection will show that it is quite
erroneous.
It alleges that if there are two equal and opposite quantities in
existence at any moment, which may neutralise each other's effects,
and the result is o, that that is the same thing as saying that these
two quantities do not exist at all.
Suppose that two equal and opposite forces act upon a particle at
rest — they neutralise each other's effects, and the result is o ; but it
would be highly erroneous to say that for that reason they do not
exist at all.
Suppose that on a division the Government has 345 supporters,
and 300 opponents. The 300 members on each side neutralise
each others' effects, and the result is that the practical force of the
Government is 45 ; but that does not imply that the 600 members
do not exist at all.
Hence, even if it were true that these equal and opposite
quantities, Credits and Debts, neutralised each others' effects, it
would be quite erroneous to say that that is the same thing as
saying that they do not exist at all.
The error consists, as we have pointed out, in supposing that, in
the case of Obligations not yet due, the Debt is an existing negative
quantity neutralising the effect of the Credit.
The Credit, or the Right of Action of the Creditor, is an existent
Quantity, which may be bought and sold like Money, or any other
chattel. The Debt, or Duty to pay, does not come into existence
until the Credit has expired, and the day of payment has come, and
consequently it cannot neutralise the Credit.
And even supposing that it is payable on demand like a Bank
Credit, it is still an Economic Quantity until payment is demanded
and it is extinguished, and the Debtor's property remains entire
until he voluntarily gives some of it up to buy up the Right of
action against himself. These considerations are of supreme
importance, as we shall see, in understanding the nature of
Banking.
Personal Credit is a person's Purchasing Power over and above his
Money. Hence Credit is a Resource and Wealth cumulative to
Money, and the whole mass of Circulating Credits are Economical
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Sio Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Quantities over and above and additional to Money, and they are
in their nature and effects in every respect equivalent to an equal
quantity of Money.
On the Application of the Theory of Algebraical Signs to
Economics.
The perplexities of the Theory of Credit, which have baffled all
the Economists in the world to explain, can only be unravelled
by the great modern doctrine of the separation of the signs of
Affection, or Distinction, and Operation.
As the introduction of this great doctrine into Economics is
perfectly novel, we shall have to treat of it rather fully, especially
as there may be students of Economics who are not very familiar
with it in other sciences. And we shall endeavour to make it
intelligible to those who have not become acquainted with it
It is a striking example of the universal truth that Practice has
always preceded Theory, that even the Practice of Science long
preceded the Theory of Science.
Sixteen hundred years ago Diophantus said : —
" kilipLS eiri Actyiv 7roAAa7rA.(Kria<r0€«ra iroici virapf iv.n
"Defect multiplied into defect gives existence?
And it is said in the Basilica : —
" 8vo apvrj<r€ts fiCav iroiowriv KardOea-iv?
" Two Negatives make an Affirmative?
This is simply the Algebraical doctrine that - x - = +, and
from the days of Diophantus this has been perfectly well under-
stood as an empirical rule in Algebra.
When the great pioneers of Algebra in modem times — Harriot,
Fermat, Vieta, Des Cartes, Cardan, Tartaglia, and others — translated
their reasonings into general symbols, they found that they had created
a machine whose working they were not fully able to apprehend.
They found, among other things, that many problems produced
Negative answers. Unable at first to apprehend the meaning of
Negative answers, they believed that they had no real interpretation,
and they called Positive roots true (vera radices), and Negative roots
false (fictce radices).
In the progress of Natural Philosophy, the Negative sign was
used to a vast variety of quantities, but no general Theory of signs
was devised, and the progress of mathematics was much impeded
by the want of this generalisation
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N.] Negative Quantities in Economics 511
The rule that - x - = + was universally adopted in practice,
as a mere matter of empiricism, because it alone produced right
results. But Algebraists were wholly unable to explain it. It was
wholly unknown to Newton, and when he tried to explain it, the
great Euler babbled like a child.
Even so late as 18 13, Frend, a distinguished mathematician at
Cambridge, denied the existence of, and ridiculed the idea of there
being, any such thing as " Negative " Quantities.
Many centuries ago, at least about n 00 a.d., the Hindoo Alge-
braists had made considerable progress in explaining the Theory of
Signs ; but nothing was done in Europe till near the end of the last
century. Since then a new spirit of philosophy has been breathed
into the old science, and a number of eminent Algebraists —
Arbogast, Argand, Bue*e, Armand, Carnot, Warren, De Morgan,
Peacock, and others, have completely established the Theory of
Signs ; and their labours have resulted in what is called the Separa-
tion of the Signs of Affection, or Distinction, and Operation. This
great Theory was first published in a standard treatise for popular
use by Peacock, in his Algebra about 1834, from which we learnt
the science.
In most of the common books on Algebra the student is told that
the sign 4- means addition, and the sign - means subtraction.
He is then told that + x + gives + , and - x - also gives + , a
doctrine which, without further explanation, is an inscrutable mystery,
not to say an absurdity, as appears in Frend's sarcastic comments
on it
Writers who are not versed in Natural Philosophy have no con-
ception of the signs + and - meaning anything but addition and
subtraction. It is perfectly true that in some cases these signs do
have that meaning, but that is only one of their meanings. Every
one who has any knowledge of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy
knows perfectly well that in reality these signs have an immense
variety of meanings, according to the particular circumstances
out of which they arise, or the body of facts to which they
relate, and that it is wholly impossible to determine their
meaning until we know the particular circumstances under which
they arise.
We must now explain the general use of these signs in Mathematics
and Natural Philosophy, and show how they are to be interpreted
in the particular body of facts which constitute the science of
Economics.
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512 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II
All Sciences deal with Quantities and Operations.
In order to explain the matter in the simplest way possible, it may
be said that all Sciences deal with Quantities and Operations.
Now throughout all Nature there is Inverseness, Opposition,
or Contrariety — Inverseness, Opposition, or Contrariety of Quality,
and Inverseness, Opposition, or Contrariety of Operation.
Thus, Similar Quantities may be endowed with Inverse, Opposite,
or Contrary Qualities, and when they are so it is invariably the
custom in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy to distinguish them
by the signs + and - .
These signs so used in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy
denote the Inverse, Opposite, or Contrary Qualities of Quantities
of a similar nature, no matter what the Inverseness, Opposition, or
Contrariety may consist in ; it may be of any sort, or description ;
they are then usually termed in Mathematical works Signs of
Affection, or we may with equal propriety term them Signs of
Distinction, or of Quality.
But also Inverse, Opposite, or Contrary Operations may be
performed on these Quantities so affected by Inverse, Opposite, or
Contrary Qualities; and these Inverse, Opposite, or Contrary
Operations are also denoted by the same signs + and -. And
any Operations of an Inverse, Opposite, or Contrary nature are
denoted by these signs, no matter what the Inverseness, Opposition,
or Contrariety may consist in, it may be of any sort or description
whatever. They are then termed Signs of Operation.
Now in every new body of facts which is brought under scientific
control, and in every new Science whatever, Inverseness, Opposition,
or Contrariety is sure to appear ; Inverseness, Opposition, or Con-
trariety of Quality : and Inverseness, Opposition, or Contrariety of
Operation. And consequently, the signs + and - receive new
applications of meaning in every new Science which conies into
existence. And it is quite impossible to determine the meaning
of these Signs until we know the Nature of the Quantities
which they refer to, and the Nature of the Operations they
denote.
As each of the Physical Sciences has been brought under the
control of Mathematics, these signs have received new meanings,
according to the Quantities and Operations they refer to. Conse-
quently they have already received a vast variety of meanings, and
they will continue to receive new meanings according as every new
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N.] Negative Quantities in Economics 513
body of facts, and every new Science, is brought under Mathematical
control.
We have now to determine what is their meaning and application
in the body of facts which is denominated the Science of Economics,
when it is brought under Mathematical control
It is the combination of these Signs denoting Quantities affected
by Inverse, Opposite, or Contrary Qualities, with the same Signs
denoting Inverse, Opposite, or Contrary Operations performed
upon them ; that is, the combination of the Signs of Affection, or
Distinction, with the Signs of Operation, which gives rise to the
well-known Algebraical Rules : —
+ x + gives +
+ x - „ -
- x + „ -
- x - „ +
These laws, from the necessary principles of Natural Philosophy,
are true in all Sciences, and in all cases whatever. They are
universally true in all departments of Mathematics and Natural
Philosophy, and therefore they must necessarily be equally true in
Economics when brought under the dominion of Mathematics.
They are alone capable, by giving a due adaptation of their
general meaning to the particular facts of Economics, of completely
solving the theory of Credit, which has hitherto been the oppro-
brium of the Science.
There are in Economics, like as in every other Physical Science
whatever, Quantities possessing Inverse, Opposite, or Contrary
Qualities, or Properties, and therefore, following the strictest
analogy of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, we shall distin-
guish them by Opposite Signs.
And also Opposite Operations may be performed upon these
Quantities affected by Opposite Qualities, bringing into play the
well-known Algebraical Rules, which will lead to consequences
which may surprise some readers, and enable us to erect Economics
into a great Physical Science.
Examples of the Algebraical Signs applied to Quantities.
We will now give some examples of the signs + and - applied
to Quantities of a similar nature, but of Opposite Qualities, to
furnish us with analogies to guide us to their application in
Economics.
If we take the meridian of Greenwich as o, degrees of longitude
2 L
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514 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
East and West of Greenwich are opposite to each other; if
then the ones are denoted by +, the others will be denoted
by-.
So, in Algebraical Geometry, in which it is necessary to fix the
position of the lines, if any fixed point be taken as o, lines drawn in
opposite direction from it, either to the right or to the left, or
upward or downward from it, are distinguished by the opposite signs
+ and -.
So, if a line revolving in one direction be denoted by +,
then when it revolves in the opposite direction it is denoted
by -.
So, if an angle above, or to the right of, a line be denoted
by +, an angle below, or to the left of, the line will be denoted
by-.
If two mechanical forces act in opposite directions, they are
distinguished by the opposite signs + and - .
If i be multiplied by powers of a, the results are termed Positive
powers of a ; if i be divided by powers of a, the results are termed
Negative powers of a.
In modern Kinematics, an accelerating force is one which causes
a body to change its rate of velocity; if it increases the rate of
velocity, it is termed a Positive accelerating force ; if it diminishes
the rate of velocity, it is termed a Negative accelerating force.
In errors of observing phenomena, if the error is greater than the
truth, it is termed Positive ; if it is less than the truth, it is termed
Negative.
In mercantile papers it is usual to compare the weekly result of
railway traffic with the results of the corresponding week in the
preceding year. If the result of the present year exceeds last year,
the difference is denoted by + ; if it falls short, the difference is
denoted by - .
Mr. Ball says l that there is good reason to believe that the signs
+ and - , which have exerted so potent an influence in mathematics,
originated in the German warehouses, where it was the custom to
mark packages which exceeded a certain weight with a +, and
packages which fell short of the proper weight with a - .
A curious instance of this may be cited from steam navigation.
Owing to the resistance of the water, the paddles or the screw of a
steamer do not in general propel the vessel through the water so fast
as they would do if there was no resistance. This Loss of speed is
termed the Slip. But in the case of the screw, by giving the stern
1 A Short history of M<Uhematics% p. 185.
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N.] Negative Quantities in Economics 515
of the vessel a peculiar shape, the paradoxical result may be
obtained that it may be made to go through the water faster than it
would do if the screw were working in a solid. In this case the
difference between the theoretical and the actual speed is a
Gain instead of a Loss, and this Gain is called the Negative
Slip.
And the instances which might be cited from the various mathe-
matical and physical sciences are innumerable.
Now the idea of Opposition is applied to a continuous line, and
to Motion in a continuous line. If any point be taken as o, then
the part of the line on one side of o may be denoted by + , and the
part on the other side by - .
Thus, in a thermometer, some fixed point, as the freezing point,
is taken as o, and degrees above that are termed degrees of Heat,
and are denoted by + ; degrees below o are termed degrees of
Frost, and are denoted by - .
Now suppose that the mercury rises from io° of Frost to 150 of
Heat; to find the total rise of the mercury, the degrees on both
sides of o must be added together. That is, the Negative degrees
must be added to the Positive degrees, and not substracted from
them.
In Natural Philosophy, Time is considered as Motion in a con-
tinuous line. If, therefore, any point in Time be fixed on, and
denoted by o, then time on Opposite sides of this point will be
denoted by Opposite signs. If Time before this epoch be denoted
by +, then Time after this epoch will be denoted by -, and the
successive intervals of time, whether years, months, weeks, days, or
hours, will be denoted thus : —
. . . + 6, + s, + 4, + 3, + 2, + 1, o, - 1, - 2, - 3, - 4, - 5, - , 6 . . .
In short, in the most general terms possible, take any Quantity,
whatever it may be, and then take its Inverse, Opposite, or
Contrary, and if the one of these be denoted by +, the other
will be denoted by - .
Thus Up and Down, Right and Left, Before and Behind, Before
and After, Time Past and Time Future, Above and Below, Face to
Face, Back to Back, Erect and Inverse, Concave and Convex,
Sympathy and Antipathy, Virtues and Vices, Rewards and Punish-
ments, Right and Wrong, Rights and Duties, Active and
Passive, and innumerable other things, are all Inverse, Opposite,
or Contrary to each other, and may all be distinguished by the
opposite signs + and - .
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Si6 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
The Signs + and - may also be applied to Persons who stand
in Opposite Relations to each other.
Mathematicians are only accustomed to deal with Quantities,
mathematical and physical, which are endowed with Inverse,
Opposite, or Contrary Qualities, and they universally apply the
signs + and - to them.
But Persons may also stand in Inverse, Opposite, or Contrary
Relations to each other, and the signs + and - may be equally
applied to Persons who stand in Inverse, Opposite, or Contrary
Relations to each other, as to Quantities which are affected by
Inverse, Opposite, or Contrary Qualities.
Thus Creditor and Debtor, Master and Servant, Supporters
and Opponents, Tutor and Pupil, Examiner and Examinee, Flogger
and Floggee, and in innumerable other cases, Persons stand in
Inverse, Opposite, or Contrary Relations to each other.
In all these cases the one party is termed the Active or Positive
Agent, and the other party the Passive or Negative Agent.
And in the Nexus, Contract, or Obligation between such Persons,
Jurists term the Right of the Active, or Positive, Agent, the Active,
or Positive, Right or Duty ; and the Duty of the Passive or Negative
Agent, the Passive, or Negative, Right or Duty.
Example of the Application of the Positive and Negative
Signs to Time.
We shall now give an example of the Application of the Signs +
and - to Time, which is of supreme importance in elucidating the
Theory of Credit.
Suppose this question were asked —
A Father's age is 40, and his Son's 15 : when Was the Father
twice the age of his Son f
Let x be the number of years before the present time when the
father was twice the age of his son.
Then 40 - x = 2 (15 - x),
Or x= - 10.
What does this Negative answer mean ?
It means that the father never was twice the age of his son in
Time past, which is taken as Positive in the question ; it means that
the epoch or the event of the father being twice the age of his son
is to be found in Time opposite to the past; that is to say, in Time
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N.] Negative Quantities in Economics 517
future. The father was not twice the age of his son ten years ago ;
but he will be twice as old as his son ten years hence, as is very
clear, because ten years hence the father will be 50, and the son 25.
Hence, if any event which has happened in Time past is Positive,
the same event, if it is to happen in Time future, is Negative
Thus, if a Product, or Profit, which has been realised in Time
past is distinguished as Positive, then a Product or Profit which
is to be produced in Time future is Negative.
Hence, if any Economic Quantity, or Capital, of any form pro-
duces Profits in a continuous series, the Profits which have been
produced in Time past or Positive time, may be distinguished as
Positive, and the Profits which are to be produced in Time future
or Negative time, may be distinguished as Negative.
And, consequently, the Right to the Profits already realised in
time past may be distinguished by the sign +, and termed Positive,
and the Right to the Profits which are to be produced in Time
future may be distinguished by the sign - , and termed Negative.
And the total Value of the Economic Quantity, or the Capital,
comprehends both the Right to the profits already realised in the
past, and also the Right to the profits to be produced in the future,
or both the Positive Right and the Negative Right.
These doctrines apply to all Economic Quantities, or Capital,
producing a continuous series of profits; i.e. all Economic Quan-
tities of the form of an Annuity, such as the Land, Personal Credit,
Shares in Commercial Companies, the Funds, Copyrights, Patents,
the Goodwill of a business, Tolls, Ferries, &c.
Examples of the Algebraical Signs applied to Operations.
The same signs + and — are also applied to any Operations
whatever of an Inverse, Opposite, or Contrary nature, no matter
what the Inverseness, Opposition, or Contrariety may consist in.
Thus, to Add and to Subtract, to Pay and to Receive, to Do and
to Undo, to Build up and to Pull down, to Admit and to Deny, to
Grant and to Refuse, to Expand and to Contract, and innumerable
other verbs denoting Opposite, or Contrary, Operations, which every
reader can supply for himself, are all distinguished by the opposite
signs + and — .
And as in the most general way possible, any Operations whatever
which can be conceived of an Inverse, Opposite, or Contrary, nature,
are distinguished by the signs + and - , to Create, or to call into
existence out of the Absolute Nothing, and to Cancel, Annihilate,
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518 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
or Decreate into the Absolute Nothing, are Operations of an
Inverse, Opposite, or Contrary, nature.
Hence if to Create, or call into existence out of the Absolute
Nothing, be denoted by the Positive sign + , to Cancel, Annihilate,
or Decreate into the Absolute Nothing, will be denoted by the
Negative sign - .
Now in the purchase of Money, or Goods, on Credit, a Nexus,
Contract, or Obligation is Created out of the Absolute Nothing,
and on the Payment of the Debt the Contract, or Obligation, is
Cancelled, Annihilated, or Decreated into the Absolute Nothing.
Now we have shown above that a Contract, or Obligation
may be denoted by this symbol —
f+£ioo\
\-£ioo)
Hence, to Create an Obligation may be denoted by this
symbol —
\-£ioof
And to Cancel, Annihilate, or Decreate, an Obligation may be
denoted by this symbol —
f+;£lOOl
\-;£ioo/
Now when an Obligation is Created, the Creditor's Right of
Action is Created out of the Absolute Nothing.
But as has been shown, in every system of jurisprudence in the
world, a Right of Action is Pecunia, Res, Bonum, Jferx, xprji^h
irpaypa, ova-la, oficos, &c. ; Goods, Chattels, Merchandise, a Vendible
Commodity, it may be bought and sold ; its value can be measured
in money, because it will be paid at maturity, and, therefore, it is
Wealth.
Hence it is manifest that Goods, Chattels, Merchandise, Wealth,
has been Created out of the Absolute Nothing.
And when the Obligation is paid, satisfied, discharged, and
extinguished, this Right of action ceases to exist ; it is Cancelled,
Annihilated, and Decreated into the Absolute Nothing from
whence it came.
Hence Goods, Chattels, Commodities, Wealth can be Created
out of the Absolute Nothing, and Decreated again into the
Absolute Nothing from whence they came, to the utter confusion of
all the materialistic philosophers from Kapila to the present day,
and the first School of Economists.
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N.] Negative Quantities in Economics 519
The superlative importance of these considerations will appear
when we come to exhibit the mechanism and practical effects of
the great system of banking.
Jurists also use the terms Positive and Negative to denote
Opposition.
Jurists also, as well as mathematicians, very commonly use the
terms Positive and Negative to denote opposition.
Thus Ortolan uses the term Positive Rights to denote Rights
to Acts, and Negative Rights to denote Rights to Forbearances.
Jurists class servitudes as Positive and Negative, or those which
consist in the Right to use the given subject in a given way, and
those which consist in the Duty of the owner of a given subject to be
used in a given way.
Ortolan calls the Omission or Refusal on the part of a person to
act or do something a Negative fact
If a certain thing happens it is a Positive fact ; if it does not
happen it is a Negative fact.
So Austin speaks of Positive and Negative wrongs, or wrongs of
Ciftt-mission and Omission.
In Parliamentary language a Bill which is thrown out is said to
pass in the Negative.
In its relation to a Right, a Duty is Negative ; but Duties them-
selves are Positive and Negative ; there is the Duty to do something,
and the Duty to abstain from doing something. Thus we have, as
it were, a Negative sign within a Negative sign, which we shall here-
after find to be the case in Economics.
So Active and Passive are distinguished as Positive and Negative.
Jurists term Rights Active or Positive Rights, and Duties Passive or
Negative Rights.
Thus, if the Right to demand ^100 be denoted by ( + £100),
the Duty to pay ;£ 100 will be denoted by (-^100), without any
reference to any specific ;£ioo in cash.
But not only Mathematicians and Jurists, but also purely literary
writers, constantly adopt the same usage.
Thus Bishop Stubbs says of Edward II. : " His faults are quite
as much Negative as Positive ; his character is not so much vicious
as devoid of virtue."
When a man is said to be Negatively virtuous, it means that he
possesses no active virtues, but is free from vices.
And any reader of attention will observe that such usage is of
constant occurrence.
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520 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
On the true Meaning of saying that Debts are Negative
Quantities.
It has been shown that mathematicians apply the term " Negative "
to Debts, but have erred in the interpretation of the sign - , because
they apply it to the Property of the Debtor.
But Jurists also term Debts "Negative" Quantities; but they
interpret the sign - in quite a different way to what mathematicians
do, for they apply it to the Person of the Debtor, and then the
meaning of the term becomes perfectly clear.
A Contract, or Obligation, consists of two parts : —
i. The Creditor's Right to Demand.
2. The Debtor's Duty to Pay.
The two Quantities are Inverse, Opposite, or Contrary to each
other; the first is Active or Positive, and the second is Passive or
Negative.
Hence the Creditor's Personal Right of Action is the Positive
Quantity, and the Debtor's Personal Duty to Pay is the Negative
Quantity.
Hence, if a person has ^500 at his banker's, and is also bound
to pay ^50 at some given future time, or even on demand, and
therefore his Property may be stated as ^500 - £$0, it is not to be
read as if he had only ,£450 at his banker's, but it is to be read in
this way : He possesses ^500 in absolute property, but coupled
with the Duty to Pay £$0 at a given time, or when demanded, and
his property can only be reduced to ^450 by giving up to him the
Right of Action for ^50.
Hence in Economics the symbol ( + j£ioo) always denotes the
Right to Money, or the Right to demand Money, such as Bank-
notes, Cheques, Bills of Exchange, or other securities, and the
symbol ( - ,£ioo) always denotes the Personal Duty to pay Money.
We now clearly see the meaning of saying that Money is a
Positive Quantity, and Debt a Negative Quantity, because Money
denotes a Right, and Debt denotes a Duty.
And this exactly corresponds with the usual, but not universal,
Algebraical doctrine, that Quantities, passing through o, change
their sign. Because when a person has spent all his money, and,
therefore, his property is o, and then incurs a Debt, he has
exhausted all his Right to demand, and has incurred a Duty
to pay.
So when a man's property is said to be ;£ioo less than nothing,
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N.] Negative Quantities in Economics 521
it means that he is under the Duty to pay ;£ioo, and has no money
to pay them with.
It is now seen how necessary it is to observe the double meaning
of the word Debt, both in Law and common usage.
When a Debt is termed "Goods," "Chattels," "Merchandise,"
"Wealth," it means the Creditor's Right of Action.
When a Debt is termed a "Negative" Quantity, it means the
Debtor's Duty to Pay.
And as the Inverse, Opposite, or Contrary Quantities in an
Obligation are created together, can only exist together, and vanish
together, they are exactly analogous to Polar Forces.
If Money be termed Positive Capital, Credit may be termed
Negative Capital.
A merchant's Wealth, or Purchasing Power, consists of his
Money, his Rights to demand Money, i.e., the Bank Notes,
Cheques, Bills of Exchange, or other Securities he may possess, and
his Credit, i.e., his Right to the future products of his industry.
If he buys goods with his Money and sells them with a Profit,
he first replaces the sum he has expended, and the surplus is his
Profit
If he buys goods with his Credit, he creates a Debt against
himself; when he sells the goods, he first discharges the Debt he
has incurred, and the surplus is his Profit
In either case, his Profit consists in the excess of his Property at
the end of the operation above what it was at the beginning.
Now, as Senior says, " Economists are agreed that whatever gives
•a Profit is properly termed Capital."
If he buys with Money, he makes Capital of the realised Profits
of the Past ; if he buys with Credit, he makes Capital of the
expected Profits of the Future.
In each case he makes a Profit ; hence by the Definition, Money
and Credit are equally Capital ; but they are Inverse, or Opposite
to each other; hence, if Money be termed Positive Capital,
Credit may be termed Negative Capital.
By a somewhat curious coincidence of thought, the early
Algebraists, not apprehending the meaning of the Negative Roots
of Equations, called them fictitious roots (fictce radices), while they
called the Positive Roots true roots (vera radices).
Thus, in the problem we gave of the father's and son's ages, the
answer came out negative, which merely meant that the question
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522 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
should have been stated in the Opposite, or Inverse, way to what it
was done ; it should have been asked when the father's age would be
twice that of his son, instead of when it had been. And, therefore,
as the Positive sign in that equation meant past time, the Negative
sign meant future time. But this root, though Negative, is as real a
root as the Positive one.
The root of an equation is any quantity whatever which satisfies
the terms of the equation ; hence a Negative quantity which satisfies
the terms of an equation is as much a Real root as a Positive
quantity.
So in a similar way, many writers, seeing clearly the effects of
Credit, call Money Real Capital, and Credit Fictitious Capital.
But the truth is that, like as the Negative root of the equation is
equally a Real root as the Positive one, Credit which is certain of
being paid is of exactly the same Value as Gold itself, as Mill has
expressly acknowledged.
Money is the Property in gold already acquired, and Credit is the
Property in gold which is to be acquired. Therefore, Credit is
Inverse, or Opposite, to Money, but Credit is in every way as Real a
Value as gold; by using Money the trader makes Capital of the
realised profits of the past ; by using his Credit he makes Capital of
the expected profits of the future; but Money and Credit are
equally saleable and valuable commodities.
The fact is that when we adopt Exchangeability as the sole
essence and principle of wealth, the whole difficulty vanishes, for
Money and Credit are equally Exchangeable Quantities.
NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENTS.
There are two classes of paper documents which circulate in com-
merce, and are transferable by indorsement, which are yet of two
distinct natures :
i. Those which arise out of a Bailment.
2. Those which arise out of a Debt.
When a person buys Goods or Money from another on Credit,
the property in the goods or money passes absolutely to the buyer,
and he gives as the price in exchange for them to the seller a Right
of Action to demand the price of the goods at a future time, or an
equal amount of money. All transactions on Credit are sales or
exchanges. This Right of Action is also called a Credit or a Debt
This Right of Action, Credit, or Debt may be written down on
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N.] Negotiable Instruments 523
paper, and made transferable to bearer, or to order; and then it
may circulate in commerce, just like money. This paper document
is not the title to any specific sum of money from the person of the
debtor at the fixed time. It is called a Credit because, if any
chooses to purchase it, he only does so because he believes that the
debtor can pay it at the due time. The law of the transfer of this
paper document follows the law of money. That is, if it is stolen
from the true owner, or a person finds it, the true owner can recover
it from the possession of the thief or finder. But if the thief or
finder passes it away in commerce for value, and a person purchases
it innocently, not knowing that it is not the real property of the
seller, and gives full value for it, he acquires the absolute property in
it, and has the right to sue all the parties to it. That is, the pro-
perty in it passes by Delivery. The rightful owner has lost the
power of recovering it from an innocent holder for value. That is
he has lost his jus vindicandu
It is this quality of the property in the document passing by
delivery and honest possession, which is termed negotiability.
All documents made payable to bearer, or to order, entitling the
holder to demand money from a person, possess this quality of
Negotiability, with a few exceptions. This quality of Negotiability
is called also Currency.
A simple abstract Right of Action not written down on any material
is an Incorporeal Chattel, but when it is written down on any
material such as paper, it becomes a material commodity just like
money.
As these documents are not titles to any specific money, and
are only abstract Rights of Action against a person, they do not
form one property with the money they may ultimately be paid
in, but they are themselves independent Exchangeable, or
Economic, quantities, whose value depends on exactly the same
principle as the value of anything else, namely, whether they can be
exchanged for money at the proper time.
In every system of jurisprudence they are classed as Wealth,
Goods, Chattels, vendible Commodities, Merchandise, Incorporeal
Chattels, Incorporeal Wealth.
They circulate in commerce exactly like money, and produce
exactly the same effects as money on prices and production.
These abstract Rights of Action are termed Jura in personam.
They comprehend Bank Notes, Cheques, Bills of Exchange,
Promissory Notes, Dividend Warrants, &c, and Postage Stamps.
They are termed in Law Valuable Securities.
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524 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
NOVATION.
/ACT<x0€cns, !£to£is: Renewal, or Transfer.
An Obligation, or Credit, or a Debt, may be discharged and
extinguished by substituting a new Obligation, Credit, or Debt
for it The new Obligation pays, discharges, and extinguishes the
preceding one, and the extinguishment of the preceding Obligation
is the consideration for the new one.
This is termed Novatio in Roman Law; furaOcarts in Greek
Law ; and Renewal, or Transfer, by us.
This Novation may take place in two ways :
i. The Debtor may give his Creditor a new obligation of his own
in payment of the former one, which the Creditor accepts in lieu
and substitution of the preceding one. The new Obligation is
the price, or payment, of the former one: and the extinguish-
ment of the previous obligation is the consideration for the new one
As, for example, when a banker agrees to renew a Promissory
Note for his customer, the new note pays and extinguishes the
prior one, the extinction of the preceding Debt is the consideration
for the new note, and no Debt, or Duty to Pay, arises until the new
note becomes due.
Or when a Creditor has a Debt due to him payable on
demand, and he agrees to take a Promissory Note at three months
from his Debtor. The note pays, discharges, and extinguishes
the Debt payable on demand; the extinction of the Debt payable
on demand is the consideration for the Note ; and no debt, or Duty
to Pay, arises until the Note becomes due.
This form of Novation is termed Renewal by us.
2. The Debtor may, in payment of his own Debt, transfer to his
Creditor a Debt due to him from some one else. If the Creditor
agrees to receive this Debt due to his Debtor in payment of the
Debt due to himself, this Debt due from the Debtor's Debtor pays
and extinguishes the Debt due from the Debtor himself.
But the Creditor may retain his own Debtor as surety, in case
of the new Debtor's failure to pay.
A familiar instance of this is where a Debtor pays his Creditor in
Bank Notes. In payment of his own Debt, he transfers to his
Creditor a debt due to him from the banker. If the Creditor
agrees to receive the Notes in payment of his Debt the Debtor
is discharged, and the Creditor agrees to take the banker as his
Debtor. So with a Cheque.
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N.] Novation 525
So when a Debtor gives his Creditor a Bill of Exchange upon
another person in payment of his own Debt.
So if a Debtor and Creditor are customers of the same bank, the
Debtor may give his Creditor a Cheque on his account in payment
of a Debt. If the Creditor accepts the Cheque he pays it into his
account : the banker transfers the Credit from the account of the
Debtor to that of the Creditor. As soon as this is done the Creditor
is paid just the same as if he had been paid in Money. The trans-
action between the Debtor and the Creditor is finally closed, even
though the banker should fail immediately afterwards ; the Debt of
the banker to the Transferor is discharged, he becomes Debtor to
the Transferee; the Transferor is released from his debt to the
Transferee, who accepts the banker as his new Debtor.
This form of Novation is termed Transfer.
This Novation is equivalent to a Payment in Money.
When the Debtor's Debtor agreed to the transfer of the Debt, he
was called Delegatus, and the transaction was termed Delegation
So Ulpian says (Dig. 50, 16, 187) — "Verbum exactae pecuniae
non solum ad Solutionem referendum est, sed etiam ad Delega-
tionem."
So Basil, 25, 5, 56 — il pvj/JLa twv diraiTrjOivrtov xpt)iw.Ti&v oi fiSvov
€ts KaTaffokrjV dva<fxf*<rdou 8c^ dXXa Kal Is <ffraf w"
" The word Payment includes not only Payment in Money, but also
the Transfer of a Credit"
So also— "Solvit et qui reum Delegat."
"He also pays who transfers another Debtor"
Also — "Delegare est vice su& alium dare Creditori, vel cui
jusserit."
" To delegate is to give another Debtor instead of one's self to the
Creditor ■, or to his order"
The most striking example of the use of Novation in modern
commerce is the use of Bank Notes and Cheques, by which almost
all payments are made. All transfers of Credit in the same bank,
and the Clearing-house, which, by an ingenious mechanism, transfers
Credits from bank to bank exactly in the same way as Credits are
transferred from one account to another in the same bank, are Nova-
tions. The prodigious amount of business settled in this way may
be judged of by the fact that in the London Clearing-house alone
Credits to the amount of ^7,000,000,000 are annually transferred
between the London banks ; and besides that there is the country
Clearing-house, and every city in the country has its own. By this
means, with the constantly increasing habit of keeping banking
oogle
526 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
accounts, these Banking Credits have now become for all practical
purposes the Current Coin of the Realm.
A Novation when effected by persons living in different places, is
known by the technical name of " An Exchange." A person living
in one country may be Debtor to one person living in another,
and Creditor to another. He may pay his Creditor by sending
him a Bill, or Order, on his Debtor, and thus the Obligations are
extinguished. The mass of reciprocal transactions of this nature
which take place between different countries is called the Foreign
Exchanges (Exchange).
PATENTS.
A Patent is one form of Incorporeal Property, and of a Property
in Ideas. It is a Right granted by letters patent from the Crown
for the exclusive making, using, and selling some commodity, re-
stricted in modern times by Statute to a new invention.
Formerly the Crown claimed the prerogative of granting and
selling to private individuals the exclusive Right of importing,
manufacturing, and selling commodities.
This abuse proceeded to great lengths under Elizabeth. The
revenues granted to her by her Spiritual and Temporal Parliaments
together amounted to only ,£65,000 a year. To eke out these
scanty resources, in the seventeenth year of her reign she revived
the old system of granting patents for trade monopolies. Almost
every conceivable ware — even the writing of Latin grammars — was
made a monopoly. These became so oppressive that strong re-
monstrances were made in the Parliament of 1597. These produced
little effect, and monopolies continued to increase. At last, in the
Parliament of 1601, a stern and fierce onslaught on them was
organized. Bacon, Fleming, and Cecil vapored about the pre-
rogative of the Crown as something so divine that it was to be
neither examined, canvassed, nor discussed. But the House was
not terrified, and Cecil acknowledged that in all his experience he
had never seen such a commotion in the House. The Queen,
discerning the true temper of the people, with her usual tact,
thanked the House for its care of the public weal, and promised
that these abuses should be put a stop to. But they were revived
under James I. At last the Statute 21 James I. c. 3 was passed,
that all monopolies of trade were contrary to the fundamental laws
of the realm, and they were prohibited in future, except only that
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p.] Patents 527
the Crown was empowered to grant letters patent for a period not
exceeding fourteen years to the first and true inventor of any new
manufactures within the realm, which were not used by anyone else
at the time of granting the letters. And the principle, with some
modifications, still holds good.
This kind of Right, though usually classed along with Copyright
as being a Right or Property in ideas, is surrounded with far greater
difficulties, and its expediency is more disputable, than that of
Copyright.
It might be said that as each is the fruit of a man's own Labour
he should be entitled to equal Property in them. This argument,
though somewhat specious, is not conclusive. No two persons
working independently on the same literary work ever produce
the same ideas. It would be a very remarkable circumstance if
two persons should ever hit independently on the same line of
poetry, or construct a sentence of moderate length exactly the same,
word for word. It would be absolutely incredible that two persons,
writing independently, should ever compose ten consecutive lines
of poetry, or write half a page of prose, word for word the same.
Even, therefore, if they chose the same subject for a poem, or a
drama, or a history, the work of each would be absolutely inde-
pendent. But when many persons' minds are bent on Science or
Inventions the case is different. Different persons, thinking inde-
pendently, constantly hit upon the same ideas in Science and
Inventions. It has often been remarked that if the greatest names
in Science had never lived, someone else would have hit upon their
discoveries.
A literary work is, therefore, more peculiarly a man's own Property
than a work of Science. If Shakespeare had never lived, there is
no reason to suppose that we should ever have had a Macbeth,
Hamlet, or Othello, But if Newton had never lived, there is every
reason to suppose that by this time the Law of Gravitation would
have been proved In Science one man's discoveries are based
upon the labours of his predecessors, and in turn his labours are
the basis of the labours of his successors. He therefore adopts and
uses the common property of mankind, and in return his discoveries
become the common property of mankind. And thus there is
constant progress in science ; but there is no such constant progress
in literature.
It is with Invention as with Science. In this inventive age, when
so many men's minds are turned tpwards the same subjects, they
constantly hit upon the same invention. Inventions grow out of
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528 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
one another ; and in the construction of some complicated machine
an inventor walks among traps and pitfalls at every step, and must
carefully beware lest someone else has not already hit upon the
same idea, and got a patent for it. The practical evils of this
are so great that many able persons, including many distinguished
inventors, have strenuously argued in favour of the total abolition of
patents. This, however, opens a very wide question, which this is not
the place to discuss. We have only to explain the nature of Patents
as Incorporeal Property, and not to argue about their expediency.
There is one peculiarity about the law of Patents which is worth
noticing. No man can have a property in a general truth or prin-
ciple, but only in some application of it ; that is, no one can have
a patent for a Discovery, but only for an Invention, As soon as
a general principle is discovered it becomes universal property, and
everyone can appropriate to himself any new demonstration or
application of it he can devise. No one can appropriate to himself
a general scientific truth, nor can he have a patent for a principle.
Thus no one can monopolise the general principle that steam, air,
or electricity can be used as motive powers: all he can have is
Property in some particular form of machine in which the general
principle is applied.
PAYMENT AND SATISFACTION.
The words Payment and Satisfaction are often supposed to
be synonymous, but they are not so.
The word Payment means anything whatever which is taken in
exchange for anything else.
It originally came from the Sanskrit Pag, which is the same word
as the Greek mjyw, Doric irayto, irrjyw/u.
In old Latin this was Pago or Paco, the same as paciscor ; and
also pango, pegi, or panxi, pactum, to covenant, agree with, or come
to terms with.
Thus it is said in the Laws of the XII. Tables —
" Rem ubi pagunt, orato " : " If they come to terms, let it be settled as
agreed upon"
"Ni pagunt, in comitio aut in foro ante meridiem causam
conjicito,>: "If they do not come to terms, bring the cause on before
midday in the comitium or forum"
Hence pacare is to come to terms with, to appease ; hence the
Italian pagare, and our pay.
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p.] Payment and Satisfaction 529
When one person has parted with anything else to another
person, or done him a service, he is entitled to receive from him
some equivalent, unless it was meant as a donation ; but at the
same time he has the right to accept anything he pleases as an
equivalent.
Thus, where two persons agree to exchange any material products,
each is the payment for the other, because each product satisfies
and appeases the claim of the other for an equivalent When
goods are paid for in Money, it is sometimes supposed that it is only
the Money which is Payment for the goods, but the goods are
equally payment for the Money, because each person has got what
he agreed to take in exchange for his product.
So when Money is paid as Wages for work done, the Money is
Payment for the work, but the work is equally Payment for the
Money.
So when persons agree to exchange different kinds of work, each
is Payment for the other.
So when a merchant agrees to take a trader's Bill at three months
in exchange for goods, the Bill is Payment for the goods; it
appeases the claim of the merchant, because he has agreed to take
a Right of Action in exchange for the goods, and the goods are
equally Payment for the Right of Action.
When the Bill becomes due the trader has to pay his Bill : that
is, he has to appease the claim which the holder of the Bill has for
Money ; and, when he pays the Bill, he buys up the Right of Action
against himself.
The Money is the Payment for the Right of Action, and the Right
of Action is Payment for the Money.
Hence to Pay means simply to appease ; when a man pays his
Debt he appeases the Right or Claim, which his Creditor has to
demand a sum of money from him. When he pays his Rent, he
appeases the Right which the owner of the house or land has against
him for compensation for its use.
But it does not follow that a Payment is a final closing of the
transaction. The only legal word which denotes a final closing is
Satisfaction. If a Bill is taken in exchange for goods it is
Payment; but it is not Satisfaction (unless it is expressly
received as such) until the Bill itself is paid.
If, however, the owner of the Bill neglects to follow up his legal
remedy, the Bill becomes not only Payment, but Satisfaction : by so
doing, the owner of it has made it Money.
And Economists go further. They say that Money itself
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S30 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
is only a higher order of Bill; that though when a person
has received Money it is Payment, it is not Satisfaction
until he has exchanged away the Money for some object he
desires.
Thus, though a shoemaker is paid when he has got Money for his
shoes, yet he has not got a Satisfaction until he has got bread, or
meat, or clothing, or something else he desires for the Money.
On Payment in Money.
We will now explain how a Payment in Money extinguishes a
Debt, which very few persons have ever thought of.
Suppose that a person possesses ^ioo, and owes a Debt of j£$o,
then his property will be (+ ^100) and (- ^30): that is, he
possesses ;£ioo, but coupled with the Duty to pay ^30 at some
given time.
His Creditor's Right to demand is ( + ^30).
When the Creditor demands payment of his Debt he brings his
Right of Action to the Debtor, who gives him ^30 in money in
exchange for it: that is, the Debtor buys up the Right of Action
against himself.
The Debtor's property is then ^70, and also (+ ^30) and
( - .£30) : that is, ^70 in money; and also the Right to demand
j£$o from himself, and the duty to pay ^30 to himself.
This is an example of Confusio: and the ( + ^30) and the
{ - ^30) cancel and extinguish each other by either of the three
methods described under Acccptilatio : the obligation is extin-
guished : and the Debtor's property is now ^70.
This transaction is, therefore, a Sale or an Exchange.
Thus the Obligation, or Contract, was originally contracted by
the Sale, or Exchange, of the Mutuum : and it is extinguished by
the Sale, or Exchange, of Payment
Thus an Obligation is created by one Exchange: and is extin-
guished by another Exchange.
This is the rationale of Payment in Money ; but there are other
methods of Payment described under Novation and Compensation \
and it is by the two latter methods that Bills of Exchange are
almost exclusively paid in this country. Payment of Bills of
Exchange by Money has almost gone entirely out of use in this
country in modern times.
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P.] Persona 531
PERSONA.
It will be very useful to understand the meaning of Persona in
Roman Law.
The word Persona means any single person, or any society of
persons, who can enjoy and exercise Rights, and who are subject to
perform Duties.
Thus in a partnership, each individual member is a Persona ; but
the partnership itself is also a Persona, quite separate and distinct
from its individual members.
Hence each member of the partnership can buy and sell with
the partnership as separate Persona.
So a Joint Stock Company is a Persona, and when the individual
members of it pay their money to it, the property in the money is
gone from them individually, and vests in the company as a distinct
Persona.
The separate members can buy and sell and traffic with the
company as with a separate individual Thus the individual mem-
bers of a Joint Stock Bank keep their accounts with it, and bank
with it as a distinct Persona. And the company has Rights and
Duties quite separate from those of its individual members.
So the State is a Persona, quite separate and distinct from
its individual citizens, and they can lend money to the State as to a
separate individual.
So every Municipal or Incorporated body is a Persona, quite
distinct from its individual members.
The Parson of the parish is the Persona who has the Right to
receive certain dues, as a consideration for performing certain
ecclesiastical Duties ; and this right is termed a benefice.
Thus a Persona may be defined to be the centre of Rights and
Duties.
Many separate individuals may make up one juridical Persona ;
and one individual may combine several Persona, or legal
characters.
Thus Cicero says (De Oratore, ii. 24) — " Itaque .... tres
personas susteneo summa aequanimitate meam, adversarii, judicis."
" Thus I sustain three characters with the greatest equanimity, my
own, my opponent's, and the judge's?
Thus one person may be the executor of one person, the trustee
of another, and the guardian of another. In each of these
characters he is a separate Persona, with a distinct set of Rights
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532 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
and Duties. And he may buy and sell with himself in each of
these separate Persona, or characters. Hence all exchanges take
place between separate Persona.
When an individual combines several Persona, he may act in
each Persona as a separate individual, which leads sometimes to
somewhat curious consequences.
He may not only buy and sell with himself, but he may come
into legal collision with himself in consequence of fulfilling these
several characters ; of which we may give an amusing instance : —
The right of salmon-fishing is a sore subject with Scottish littoral
proprietors. Salmon is claimed as a royal fish in Scotland. On one
occasion a great Scottish proprietor found himself in collision with
the Crown on a question of salmon rights. The action was against
the President of the Board of Trade. But in the whirligig of
politics, the noble Duke found himself President of the Board of
Trade; so that the Duke, as a great salmon-proprietor, found himself
suing himself as President of the Board of Trade, and guardian
of the interests of the Crown.
It is not unusual for Indian officials to be the heads of several
offices, and many amusing stories are told of their finding them-
selves in collision with themselves as to the Rights and Duties of
their several offices, and of the hostile correspondence they carry on
with themselves in their several Persona.
Lord Farrer has supplied me with a tragi-comic example of this :
" There was a Treasurer in one of the West Indian Islands who was
also Attorney-General. As Treasurer he committed peculation, and
was prosecuted by the Governor. The lawyers being scarce, he
applied for leave to draw his own indictment ; obtained leave ; drew
the indictment ; received a fee for it ; and was convicted on it."
So a banker who has rediscounted a bill accepted by his customer,
payable at his bank, may pay the bill either as indorser or as agent
for the acceptor, and take time to consider in which capacity,
or persona, he does so.
So a clergyman may read the marriage service at his own marriage,
in the persona of clergyman and bridegroom.
So when a Railway company carries materials for its own use it is
both its own carrier and its own customer. It takes the money out
of one drawer as expenditure, and puts it into another as revenue.
It has sometimes happened that a magistrate has unwittingly
committed a breach of the law, and in his persona of magistrate
has publicly fined himself in his persona of culprit.
So one individual may be both Creditor and Debtor. He is an
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P.] What is a Pound? 533
active agent as regards his Debtor, and a passive agent as regards
his Creditor.
But his Creditor may put his debts against him into circulation.
When it is presented to him for payment he buys up the Right of
Action against himself. He then becomes both Creditor to himself
and Debtor to himself.
This is called Confusio in Roman Law, and has given rise to a
good deal of juridical perplexity.
What is a POUND?
In the great Currency debates in the Great War many curious
notions were started as to what a "Pound" is. Sir Robert Peel
once asked the question, "What is a Pound?" and he found a
good many persons who could give him no answer. We have now
to explain how a certain weight of gold has come to be called a
Pound.
The original Measure of Value instituted by Charlemagne was
the Pound weight of Silver Bullion. This was adopted in all the
countries of Western Europe, France, England, Italy, Spain, and
Scotland.
No coin of this actual weight was ever struck, but the Pound
weight was divided into 240 coins, called Denarii, or Pennies;
twelve of these Pennies were termed a Solidus, or Shilling, and
therefore 20 Shillings, or Solidi% actually weighed a Pound of Silver
Bullion.
Now let us denote the Pound weight of silver in the form of
Bullion by the symbol — lb., and the Pound weight of silver in the
form of Coin by the symbol — jQ\ then we have — 240 Pennies = 20
Shillings = ;£i==i lb. Now if the Pound weight of silver were
divided into more than 240 Pennies, it is clear that the greater
number of Pennies would still be equal to the Pound of Silver, and
if we denoted 240 Pennies by the symbol — j£> irrespective of their
weights, we should have the— lb. = ;£i +the number of Pennies
above 240.
This is what has been done in all the countries above mentioned.
The Sovereigns of these countries were frequently in want of money
to pursue their various extravagances. As they could not increase
the quantity of the metal, they adopted the fraudulent plan of
surreptitiously cutting the Pound of Silver into a greater number of
Pennies. But they still called them by the same name. By this
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534 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
means they gained an illusory augmentation of wealth. As they
could not increase the quantity of the metal, they at various periods
falsified the certificate, while they still called the Coins by the same
name.
The consequence of this was manifest. As 240 Pennies were
still called a Pound in Money, or £, whatever their weight was,
and as more than 240 Pennies were coined out of the Pound of
Silver, or lb., the jQ, or Pound of Silver in Coin, began to vary from
the lb., or Pound weight of Silver.
Edward I. began this bad practice in 1300; he coined 243
Pennies out of the Pound weight of Silver; in 1366 Edward III.
coined 266 Pennies out of the Pound weight of Silver; in
141 2 Henry IV. coined the Pound of Silver into 360 Pennies;
and so it gradually crept up, until Elizabeth in 1601 coined
the Pound of Silver into 744 Pennies, at which it remained
till 1816.
Then we have manifestly : — 744 Pennies = 62 Shillings — jQz *s.
-lib.
As there are 12 ounces in one Pound-weight of Silver, it is
evident that each ounce was coined into 62 Pennies ; and as the
Value of Bullion is measured by the ounce, the Mint Price of Silver
was said to be 5s. 2d. per ounce.
In Scotland this depreciation of the coinage began about the
same period as in England, but it proceeded to much greater
lengths. In 1306 Robert Bruce coined the Pound of Silver into
252 Pennies; in 145 1 James II. coined it into 760 Pennies, or
jQ$ 4s., and the depreciation was continued until in 1738 the
Pound of Silver was coined into 8928 Pennies, or ^37 4s., and thus
the Pound Scots became equal to twenty pence.
In France and Italy the depreciation proceeded twice as far as in
Scotland. The French livre and the Italian lira were at last
reduced to tenpence. The French livre, which is now called a
franc, has been adopted as the basis of the decimal system of
coinage, and the solidus has dwindled down to the sou, or half-
penny.
At the great re-coinage in 18 16 it was resolved to adopt the
principles of Petty, Locke, Harris, and Lord Liverpool, and make
Gold as the single standard of England; and the Sovereign, or
Pound, in Gold was coined to be equal to 20s. in Silver, at the then
market Value of Gold and Silver.
Ever since the time of Charles II. the coinage of Gold has been
free to the public. But by the Act of 18 1 6 the coinage of Silver
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p.] Practice 535
and Bronze is retained in the hands of the Government In order
to obviate the effects of what is termed Gresham's Law (Gresham's
Law)) the value of the Silver coinage has been artificially raised.
Since 1816 the Pound-weight of Silver has been coined into 66
shillings, but four of these are retained for the expenses of coinage,
and the 62 lighter shillings are declared to be of the same value as
the previous heavier ones. Thus 20 of them are declared to be
equal in value to the Sovereign, or Pound, and thus their value was
artificially raised about 6 per cent This, of course, refers to the
relative value of Gold and Silver in 181 6 ; at the present time the
market value of the silver in a shilling is about 5d. But to prevent
injustice being done, they are not legal tender for more than 40s.,
it having been intended to make the double sovereign the monetary
unit
This country now enjoys the most admirable system of coinage
ever devised by the ingenuity of man, and as a proof of its excel-
lence, while all the countries which attempted to make Gold and
Silver equally legal tender to an unlimited amount when coined at a
fixed ratio, were thrown into confusion and perturbation by the
recent changes in the value of these metals, the Coinage of this
country has passed through the whole of the protracted crisis
with the most perfect tranquillity. He would be a bold and
daring Minister indeed who would undertake to disturb our
present system of Coinage.
PRACTICE.
A Practice is one form of Incorporeal Property. When a pro-
fessional man has established a successful business, he has gathered
round him a certain number of regular clients, and hopes to acquire
more. The expectation of future profits from these clients has
a certain value, and may be sold to strangers. It is the emptio spei
of Roman Law. It is property analogous to the goodwill of a
trader, the copyright of a book, a patent, and a share in a commercial
company. It is very usual for a young doctor, surgeon, or solicitor,
instead of waiting to build up a practice of his own, which may
take years to do, to buy an established practice. This is an
investment of Capital, and the practice so purchased becomes
his Capital
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536 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
PRICE.
WhenTanyjf Economic Quantity is exchanged for any other
Economic Quantity, each is termed the Value of the other. But
when one or both of the Economic Quantities exchanged is Money,
or Credit, it receives a special name — it is termed Price. Hence,
*\* Price is always Value expressed in Money or Credit.
The Value of Money is any other Economic Quantity which can
be obtained in exchange for it: either a material chattel: or a
service : or an abstract Right, such as a Debt.
If Money be taken as the fixed Quantity, the more of the other
Quantity which'can be obtained in exchange for it, the Greater is
the Value of Money. The less of the other Quantity which can be
obtained for it, the Less is the Value of Money.
Or if the other Quantity be taken as the fixed Quantity, the less
the Money which is given for it, the Greater is the Value of
Money : and the more the Money given for it, the Less is the Value
of Money.
Hence it is seen that — The Value of Money varies Inversely as
Price.
But Rights of Action, Credits, or Debts, are Goods, Chattels,
Commodities, Merchandise which are brought into commerce, and
bought and sold, or exchanged, like any other merchandise.
Now when commodities, or merchandise, are brought into com-
merce, they are always divided into certain Units for the sake of
convenience of sale. Coals are sold by the ton : corn by the
quarter or other measure: tea and sugar by the pound: cloth
by the yard : wine and other liquids by the gallon, quart, or
pint, etc.
So for the convenience of commerce Bullion is divided into
Units, called coins.
In a similar way when the Commodity or Merchandise, termed
Credit, or Debt, is brought into commerce, it must, for the con-
venience of trade, be divided into Units.
The Unit of Credit, or Debt, is the Right to Demand £100
to be paid one year hence.
The sum of Money given to purchase the Unit of Debt is also
termed its Price. And as in all sales, the less the quantity of
Money given to purchase the Unit of Debt, the greater is the Value
of Money : and the greater the quantity of Money given to pur-
chase the Unit of Debt, the less is the Value of Money.
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P.] Price 537
Hence the Value of Money, with respect to Debts, varies
exactly in the same way as it does with respect to any other
merchandise.
But in the commerce of Debts it is not usual to estimate the
Value of Money by the quantity of Debt it will purchase. As
Money naturally produces a profit, it is clear that the Value, or
Price, of a Debt, to be paid only one year hence, must be less than
the actual amount of the Debt. The difference between the
Present Value, or Price, of the Debt and the amount of the Debt
is the Profit made by buying it.
This difference or Profit is termed Discount.
As dear old Horace says that it is more easy to understand things
addressed to the faithful eyes than those things only addressed to
the ears, the following figure will make the matter clearer :
D
C I E
Let AB be the unit of Debt.
CD be the amount of Money given for it : /.*., its Price.
DE be the difference between the Price of the Debt and its
amount : i.e., the Discount.
In the commerce of Debts it is invariably the custom to estimate
the Value of Money by the Discount, or Profit, it yields : and not
by the Price of the Debt.
Now as the Price of the Debt decreases, or increases, it is evident
that the Discount increases or decreases.
Hence in the commerce of Debts —
The Value of Money varies Directly as the Discount
This rule embraces both branches of commerce —
The Value of Money varies Inversely as Price, and Directly
as Discount
To Discount a Debt is to buy it by paying down the Present
Value of its amount payable at a future time.
Hence it must be observed that the term Value of Money has
two meanings in commerce. There are three great branches of
commerce : the commerce in material commodities : the commerce
in labour or services : and the commerce in abstract Rights. And
the expression "Value of Money" has two distinct meanings as it
is applied to these three branches of commerce. In the commerce
in material commodities and in labour and in abstract Rights,
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538 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
except Debts, it means the quantity of the commodity or the
labour or the abstract Right it can purchase. In the commerce
of Debts it means the Discount or Profit made by buying
the Debt
Confusion of Mill on the expression Value of Money.
Mill has a long and utterly inept tirade against the double mean-
ing of the expression Value of Money.
He says (Bk. 3. ch. viii. § 1) : "It is unfortunate that in the very
outset of the subject we have to clear from our path a formidable
ambiguity of language. The value of Money is to appearance an
expression as precise, as free from possibility of misunderstanding,
as any in science. The value of a thing is what it will exchange for;
the value of money is what money will exchange for — the purchasing
power of money. If prices are low, money will buy much of
other things ; and if of high value — if prices are high — it will buy
little of other things, and is of low value. The value of money
is inversely as general prices — falling as they rise, and rising as
they fall.
" But, unhappily, the same phrase is also employed in the current
language of commerce, in a very different sense. Money, which is
so commonly understood as the synonyme of wealth, is more especi-
ally the term in use to denote it when it is the subject of borrowing.
" When one person lends to another, as well as when he pays wages
or rent to another, what he transfers is not the mere money, but a
right to a certain value of the produce of the country, to be selected
at pleasure ; the lender having first bought this right, by giving for
it a portion of his capital. What he really lends is so much capital ;
the money is the mere instrument of transfer. But the capital
usually passes from the lender to the receiver, through the means
either of money, or of an order to receive money, and, at any rate, it
is in money that the capital is computed and estimated. Hence,
borrowing capital is universally called borrowing money; the loan
market is called the money market; those who have their capital
disposable for investment, or loan, are called the moneyed class; and
the equivalent given for the use of capital, or, in other words, interest,
is not only called the interest of money, but, by a grosser perversion
of terms, the value of money. This misapplication of language,
assisted by some fallacious appearances, has created a general notion
among persons in business that the Value of Money, meaning the
rate of interest, has an intimate connection with the Value of Money
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p.] Production 539
in its proper sense, the value or purchasing power of the circulating
medium."
It will be seen by the preceding exposition, that there is no ground
whatever for Mill's calling the expression Value of Money, as applied
to the rate of interest, a perversion of language, and an ambiguity.
It all arises from Mill's not understanding the nature of the oper-
ation. Rights of Action, Credit, or Debts, are goods and chattels,
vendible commodities, merchandise, just like any material chattels,
and, as we have shown, the Value of Money varies with respect to
them, just in the same way as it does with respect to any other
chattels. The only thing is that it is expressed in rather a different
way. So that there is no ambiguity nor perversion of language.
PRODUCTION.
The word Production, as a technical term in Economics, comes
from the Latin producere> which means to lead or bring forth, or to
expose for sale.
Thus Thais, in the Eunuchus of Terence, says (Act I. 1, 90) —
"Anchillas, servos . . .
Omnes Prodiuri, vendidi."
" All the Slaves male and female I offered for sale, and sold. "
So also Suetonius (De illus. gram.% c. 4) says —
" Quum familia alicujus produceretur."
" When any. ones household slaves were offered for sale"
The original sense of Produce in English is exactly the same.
It is to draw forth, to cause to come near. Thus in Isaiah, xlL, 21,
it is said — " Produce your cause with the Lord : bring forth your
strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob"; and the marginal note
says — " Produce — cause to come near."
So Antony, \u Julius Casar (Act iii. sc. 1), says —
"That 'sail I seek,
And am moreover suitor, that I may
Produce his body in the market-place."
So, Albany says in Lear (Act v. sc. 3) —
" Produce their bodies, be they alive or dead."
So, when Mr. Montagu Tigg gives Mr. Jonas Chuzzlewit and
party a dinner — " It was as good a one as Money (or Credit, no
matter which) could Produce."
To Produce, is simply to bring forward something, and place it
where it is wanted. If a witness is told to Produce a deed, or
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540 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
document, in Court, it means that he is to bring it into Court, and
place it there. A party to a cause Produces his witnesses in
Court. A gaoler is ordered to Produce the body of his prisoner
in Court, i.e. to place him there.
In the Universal language of commerce the Producer is the
person who brings anything into the market, and offers it for sale.
When the turn of the market is for or against the Producer,
it means that it is for or against the Seller.
Hence the true and original meaning of Production in
Economics is to place anything in the market, and offer it for sale
A thing may be produced in nature, but until it is offered for sale,
it is not Produced in Economics.
A great poet may produce a great poem, a great artist may
produce a great picture, a great sculptor may produce a great statue ;
we may estimate their merits most highly, they may be among the
highest products of human genius, but how are we to estimate their
Market Value? For Economics has nothing to do with them,
except so far as regards their Market Value.
Hence, though the poem, the picture, or the statue, may be
produced in nature, or called into existence ; they are not
Produced in Economics, until they are brought into the market
and offered for sale.
So in French, the original and primary meaning of Produirey as
Littre" says, is pousser en avant ; and of production it is action de
produire, de mettre en avant
A Product in Economics is Anything" whatever which is
brought into the market, and offered for sale, whether it be
Material, Immaterial, or Incorporeal.
It has been too much the custom in Economics, especially in
recent times, to think of the word Production only as meaning
bringing something into existence. But when it is seen that Produc-
tion means placing something in the market and offering it for sale,
it is evident that the product must not only be called into existence,
but transported from place to place.
Hence modern Economists expressly class Transport or Circula-
tion as one form of Production.
Thus Destutt de Tracy1 under Production includes changes of
form and place.
J. B. Say enumerates Transport under the term Production.
Michel Chevalier does the same. Mill, who gives the first book
of his work to Production, in the sense of obtaining things from
1 Traiti d* Economic Politique, p. 82.
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p.] Production 541
the earth, in a subsequent chapter says x — " Improvements in pro-
duction, understanding this last expression in its widest sense to
include the process of procuring commodities from a distance, as well
as that of producing them."
Hence Foreign Importers, Merchants, and Traders of ail sorts,
wholesale and retail, are Producers, because they transport
commodities from one place to another, and offer them for sale
in the place where they are wanted.
Three Classes of Economic Producers.
Now in general there are three distinct kinds of operations
necessary before a Commodity can be placed in the market and
offered for sale to the final purchaser, who purchases the finished
product, and takes it out of commerce for personal use and
enjoyment, who in the language of Economics is termed the
Consumer.
(1) Agricultural Producers. — One class of persons obtains
the rude produce from the earth — this class includes agriculturists,
miners, hunters, fishermen, breeders of cattle, herds, &c. ; these
persons bring their products into the market and offer them for
sale.
(2) Manufacturing: Producers.— But when this raw produce
is first brought into the market it is seldom fitted for final purchase
and human use without undergoing several processes of manufactur-
ing and fashioning.
Manufacturers of all sorts purchase the raw produce from its first
or agricultural producers, and fashion and transform it by an infinity
of processes, so as to render it fit for human use.
(3) Commercial Producers.— But after the raw produce of
the earth has, by the various processes of manufacture, been ren-
dered fit for human use, it has still to be transported from one
country to another, and from one place to another in the same
country, before it is placed in the market, and finally offered for
sale to the consumer, who takes it out of commerce for his own
use and enjoyment. These Commercial Producers include Foreign
Importers, Merchants, and Traders of all sorts, wholesale and
retail.
Now Money is used to effect all these operations, hence Money
employed in any one of them is used as Productive Capital.
But Credit is also used in exactly the same way as Money to
1 Prin, of Pol, Econ, bk. iv. ch. 3. § 1.
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542 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
effect any of these operations. Hence Credit may be used in all
respects like Money as Productive Capital
Smith says that Capital may be employed productively in four
different ways, and that all persons who are engaged in these
operations are productive labourers.1 But, unfortunately, though
he enumerates several methods of employing capital productively,
and several classes of persons whom he denominates productive
labourers, he gives no definition of what Production is, and he is
very inconsistent with himself on the subject of Productive Labour.
J. B. Say rightly adopted the extended meaning of productive
labour given by Smith and Condiliac, and felt it necessary to en-
large the original definition of the word. He says2 — " We cannot
create objects : the mass of matter of which the world is composed
can neither be increased nor diminished. All that we can do is to
reproduce these matters under another form, which makes them fit
for some purpose which they had not before. Hence there is
creation, not of matter, but of utility, and as this utility gives them
value, there is Production of Wealth.
"This is the meaning of Production in Political Economy, and
in this work. Production is not the creation of matter, but the
creation of utility. It is not measured by the length, the volume,
or the weight of the product, but by the utility which has been
conferred. There is then truly Production of Wealth, where there
is creation or increase of utility."
Say also adopts Smith's enumeration of Productive labourers,
agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial: and he says that
commercial industry contributes to production by raising the value
of a product by its transport from one place to another.
So again he says3 that Production is to give a recognized value to
anything which makes it capable of procuring something else in ex-
change of equal value; and that commercial production is the
creation of a value obtained by the transport or the distribution to
consumers of products already existing.
So again he says4 — "We cannot bring out of nothing a single
particle of matter ; we cannot even send back a single particle into
nothing ; but we can call out of nothing the qualities which make
matter, which had no value previously, acquire a value, and become
wealth. It is in this that Production consists in Political Economy.
There is the miracle of human industry : and the things to which
value is thus given are termed Products.
1 Book ii. ch. 5. * Traitt, Book i. ch. I.
8 Epitome at the end of the Traiti. 4 Cours, Part i. ; Div. i. ch. 4.
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p.] Production 543
" To create products, not being able to create matter, the action
of industry is necessarily confined to separating, combining, and
transporting the molecules of which it is composed. It changes
the state of matter, and that is all : and by this change of state it
makes it fit to serve us."
Now so far as regards matter and material products, this is
undoubtedly true ; but J. B. Say himself makes immaterial products
an integral part of Economics, and treats them as Wealth and
Capital, just in the same manner as material products. He says
that the sciences, and talents of professional men, are capital which
give a revenue, and how are these sciences and talents formed out
of the particles of matter ? They are the pure products of thought.
But those who provide them when they are wanted, are evidently as
much producers as the producers of material products.
Say also admits Rights, such as Commercial Obligations of all
sorts, Copyrights, &c, to be Wealth; but how are these Rights
formed out of particles of matter?
Mr. Mill says1 — "The production of wealth: the extraction of
the instruments of human subsistence and enjoyment from the
materials of the globe." And though the first book of his work
is devoted to Production, he gives no further definition of it. In
it he enumerates the different kinds of labourers whom he considers
to be productive. However, in a subsequent part of his work
he admits that transport in commerce is one species of production.
He says * — li Improvements in production ; understanding the last
expression in its widest sense to include the process of procuring
commodities from a distance, as well as that of producing them."
So Malthus defines Production to be8 — "The creation of objects
which constitute wealth."
So Destutt de Tracy says4 — "Not only can we never create
anything, but it is impossible for us to conceive what it is to create
or to annihilate, if we rigorously understand by the words to make
something out of nothing, or to reduce something to nothing;
for we have never seen anything come out of nothing, or return
to it Thence the axiom admitted by all antiquity — Nothing can
come from nothing, and Nothing can go back into nothing. What,
then, do we do by our labour, by our action on all the things which
surround us ? Never anything but effecting on these things changes
of form, or place, which apply them to our use, and which make
them useful to the satisfaction of our wants. That is what we
1 Preliminary Remarks. s Book iv, cfa. 3, § 1.
* Definitions in Political Economy > p. 235. 4 Traiti cPkonomie politique, p. 82.
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544 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
must understand by Producing; it is to give things a utility they
had not before. Whatever our labour may be, if it does not result
in a utility it is unfruitful ; if it results in one it is productive."
We need not give any more extracts, because it is certain that
these sufficiently represent the general use of the word Production
by Economical writers. Now we observe that the general drift
of all these discussions on production is to consider the process
by which the product is obtained. Now if this were a true view
of the Economic meaning of Production, it would follow that when
we treated of the " Production of Wealth " in Economics, we should
have to investigate the whole science and art of agriculture, of
mining, and all the processes in manufactures of every description,
and all trades, because all these things are the production of wealth
according to the definition given above. But this is a complete
error. Every Economist would at once say that this is a complete
misconception of the subject. Economics has nothing to do with
any of the processes of agriculture, mining, manufacturing, or the
handicraft of any workman, but only with the value of the product
when obtained. A product does not enter into the science of
Economics until it enters into commerce, and seeks to be ex-
changed; and the sole purport and aim of Economics is to
determine the relative quantities of other products it can be ex-
changed for. The earliest Economists over and over again said
that the science has nothing to do with products which are obtained
and enjoyed by their producers without being exchanged. And
Whately,1 Bastiat,2 and Perry,8 already quoted, clearly enforce
the same doctrine. By dwelling so much, therefore, on the process
of obtaining products, these Economists have given a wrong direc-
tion to the ideas of their readers, so far as regards Economics,
and we must now ascertain what is the true Economic meaning
of Production.
But man has many other wants besides physical ones, which can
be gratified with material substances. He wants services and enjoy-
ments of many kinds, and he is willing to give something in
exchange for, or to pay for, these services and enjoyments; and
those persons who can render these services, or supply these enjoy-
ments, are equally Producers as those who produce material
substances.
Thus men want to be protected in their legal rights, and to have
disputes among them settled, or to be healed of diseases, or services
of many other descriptions too long to enumerate; and so some
1 p. ioo. 2 p. ioi. 8 p. 12a.
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P.] Productive and Unproductive Labour 545
men bestow their labour in acquiring a knowledge of law, of
medicine, of civil engineering, and all the other various professions
and sciences, and are ready to produce or offer these services in
exchange for something else.
So people like the enjoyment of seeing acting and dancing, or
hearing music, and therefore some men bestow their labour in
acquiring skill in these things, and offer them in exchange for
payment.
Now the meaning of every term must be fixed and appropriated
in every science in a manner which is suitable to that science, and
nothing is more common than for the same word to have different
technical senses in different sciences ; and therefore we say that
though in treating of the arts of agriculture, mining, or the various
manufactures and trades, the word Production may very aptly be
applied to the various processes of the different trades, yet such
a meaning is not suitable to the science of Economics, and that the
only true meaning of "Produce" in Economics is to offer for
sale, and that the true Economic meaning of Production is simply
offering for sale.
PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE LABOUR.
There is no part of Smith's work which has been so universally
condemned, even by his warmest admirers, or in which he is so con-
tradictory to himself and to common parlance, as in his doctrine of
Productive and Unproductive Labour.
The Economists restricted the term Productive Labour to obtain-
ing an increase of quantity of the raw products of the earth. All
other labourers, all artificers, all merchants and traders, they classed
as sterile, or unproductive, because they said that in commerce there
was only an exchange of equal values ; and in manufactures, that the
increased value bestowed on them by the labour of the artisans only
replaced the products consumed by them during the work, and
therefore in neither case was there any increase of Wealth* This
designation of so many and powerful classes of society as sterile and
unproductive labourers, raised a great clamour against them, as if
they had meant it as an insult. But the Economists justly replied
that they did not mean this term in a disparaging or humiliating
sense, but purely as a matter of scientific classification. They
acknowledged that the labour of these classes was honourable,
useful, and indeed indispensable, but they did not term it as
2 N
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546 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Productive, in a scientific sense. Their answer was perfectly just, but
their scientific classification was soon demonstrated to be erroneous.
Among others Adam Smith attacked it, and says {Wealth of
Nations, Book 4, ch. ix.), "The third is the class of artificers,
manufacturers, and merchants, whom they endeavour to degrade
by the humiliating appellation of the barren or unproductive class."
We shall soon see whether Smith has not fallen into exactly the
same error as he charged against the Economists.
He says (Book 2, ch. iii.), "There is one sort of labour which
adds to the value of the subject upon which it is bestowed ; there is
another which has no such effect. The former, as it produces a
value, may be called productive, the latter, unproductive labour.
Thus the labour of a manufacturer adds generally to the value
of the materials which he works upon, that of his own maintenance
and of his master's profits." Smith then enlarges the term Pro-
ductive Labour to include manufacturing and commercial labour
of all sorts, as well as agricultural. But there he unaccountably
stops, and bars all other labourers as unproductive, or, in his own
words, endeavours to degrade them by the humiliating appellation
of barren or unproductive.
In continuation of the passage just given, he says, " The labour
of a menial servant, on the contrary, adds to the value of nothing.
Though the manufacturer has his wages advanced to him by his
master, he in reality costs him no expense, the value of these wages
being generally restored with a profit in the improved value of the
subject upon which his labour is bestowed; but the maintenance
of a menial servant is never restored. A man grows rich by
employing a multitude of manufacturers ; he grows poor by main-
taining a multitude of menial servants. The labour of the latter,
however, has its value, and deserves its reward, as well as that of
the former; but the labour of the manufacturer fixes and realizes
itself in some vendible commodity, which lasts for some time, at
least, after that labour is past. It is, as it were, a certain quantity
of labour stocked and stored up, to be employed, if necessary, upon
some other occasion. That subject, or what is the same thing, the
price of that subject, can afterwards, if necessary, put into motion a
quantity of labour equal to that which had originally produced it.
The labour of the menial servant, on the contrary, does not fix and
realize itself in any particular subject or vendible commodity. His
services generally perish in the very instant of their performance,
and seldom leave any trace or value behind them, for which an equal
quantity of service could afterwards be procured."
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p.] Productive and Unproductive Labour 547
Now, according to Smith, the cook at an hotel is a productive
labourer; she prepares, dresses, and cooks the food eaten by the
guests. Her labour, according to Smith, adds to their value, and is
charged for in the bill ; it is fixed and realized in a vendible com-
modity which lasts for some time after that labour is passed, and
her labour tends to the profit of the landlord, and her wages are all
repaid to him in his customer's bills.
But a cook in a gentleman's family, who performs the very same
functions, is a menial servant, and therefore, according to Smith, she
is an unproductive labourer. Where is the sense of such a distinc-
tion? By Smith's own doctrine, the various articles of food are
more valuable after she has dressed them for table, than they were
in the raw state. Her labour is fixed and realized in material com-
modities which last after that labour is past When these two
persons perform exactly the same functions, and are equally paid
for their services, why is the one productive, and the other unpro-
ductive? So that if the cook in an hotel takes a place in a
gentleman's family, she is at once turned from a productive to
an unproductive labourer! If a cook in a private family takes
a place in an hotel, she, from an unproductive, becomes a productive
labourer ! It is obvious that such a distinction is mischievous, futile,
and contrary to common sense.
Again, Smith allows that all the various persons engaged in
extracting the coal from the mines, transporting it to distant places,
and placing it in a gentleman's cellar, are productive labourers ; but
the footman who carries it from the cellar to the drawing-room grate
is a menial, and therefore an unproductive labourer. By Smith's
own doctrine, the labour of each of the series of persons who
extract and transport the coal to the cellar adds to its value, and
therefore, for the same reason, the labour of the footman who
carries it from the cellar to the drawing-room adds to its value.
The terminus a quo the coal starts is the mine, the terminus ad quern
it is to arrive is the drawing-room grate \ and why is the labourer
who transports it from the mine to the cellar productive, and the
labourer who transports it from the cellar to the grate unproductive ?
Why is the line of ignominious demarcation between productive
and unproductive labour drawn at the coal cellar? Both labourers
are engaged in the same series of operations ; the labour of each is
equally necessary and equally paid for. It is obvious that such a
distinction is mischievous, futile, and contrary to common sense.
Now, why does a gentleman pay for a cook in an hotel, or in his
own house, to dress his dinner? Simply to save himself the trouble
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548 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
of doing it for himself. Why does he pay the price for miners
obtaining the coal, and dealers transporting it from place to place ?
And why does he pay wages to his footman to carry coal from the
cellar to the drawing-room ? Simply to save himself the trouble of
doing so himself. And the same course of argument applies to
everything else which is wanted and paid for. Now, here are
services wanted, demanded, and paid for, and yet some are called
productive, and others unproductive. Is not this plainly contrary to
all scientific classification ?
Smith then continues — " The labour of some of the most
respectable orders in the society is, like that of menial servants,
unproductive of any value, and does not fix and realise itself in any
permanent subject or vendible commodity, which endures after that
labour is past, and for which an equal quantity of labour could
afterwards be procured. The Sovereign, for example, with all the
officers, both of justice and of war, who serve under him, the whole
army and navy, are unproductive labourers. They are the servants
of the public, and are maintained by a part of the annual produce
of the industry of other people. Their service, how honourable,
how useful, how necessary soever, produces nothing for which an
equal quantity of service can afterwards be procured. The protec-
tion, security, and defence of the commonwealth, the effect of their
labour this year, will not purchase its protection, security, and
defence for the year to come. In the same class must be ranked
some both of the gravest and most important, and some of the most
frivolous professions : churchmen, lawyers, physicians, opera singers,
opera dancers, &c. The labour of the meanest of these has a
certain value, regulated by the very same principles which regulate
the value of every other sort of labour, and that of the noblest and
most useful produces nothing which could afterwards purchase or
procure an equal quantity of labour. Like the declamation of the
actor, the harangue of the orator, or the tune of the musician, the
work of all of them perishes in the very instant of its production. *
Now, in reference to what Smith says about the protection,
security, and defence of the commonwealth purchased by the labour
of soldiers and sailors one year, not purchasing its security and
defence the year after, we may observe that the food a man eats one
year, or the clothes and the fuel which keep him warm one year,
will not keep him in life and warmth for the year to come ; and yet
Smith classes those who produce food, clothes, and fuel, as produc-
tive labourers, and those who produce security and defence as.
unproductive labourers. Can anything be more futile?
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p.] Productive and Unproductive Labour 549
Smith is, moreover, utterly inconsistent with himself, for he
himself classes as wealth (Bk. 2, ch. i.) "the acquired and useful
abilities of all the inhabitants or members of the society. The
acquisition of such talents by the maintenance of the acquirer
during his education, study, or apprenticeship, always costs a real
expense, which is a capital fixed and realized, as it were, in his
person. These talents, as they make part of his fortune, so do they
likewise of that of the society to which he belongs. The improved
dexterity of a workman may be considered in the same light as a
machine or instrument of trade which facilitates and abridges labour,
and which, though it costs a certain expense, repays that expense
with a profit.,,
Again, he says (Bk. 1, ch. x.), "A man educated at the
expense of much labour and time, to any of these employments
which require extraordinary dexterity and skill, may be compared
to one of these expensive machines. The work which he learns
to perform, it must be expected, over and above the usual wages
of common labour, will replace to him the whole expense of his
education, with at least the ordinary profits of an equally valuable
capital."
He also says, "A man is rich or poor according to the degree
in which he can afford to enjoy the necessaries, conveniences, and
amusements of human life."
Surely, therefore, those men who can produce those sciences,
knowledge, and amusements, which Smith acknowledges to be
wealth, are productive labourers.
Accordingly, J. B. Say extended the term Productive to include
all labour which is required and paid for (Traiti, 51, chap, vii.) —
"Whatever be the operations to which labour is applied, it is
productive, because it aids in the creation of a product. Thus
the labour of the man of science, who makes experiments and
books, is productive; the labour of the undertaker, although he
does not directly apply his hand to the work, is productive; in
short, any manual industry, from the labourer who digs the earth,
to the sailor who handles a ship, is also productive."
So also {Epitome at the end of TraitS) — " Labour, a continued
action directed towards an object. Labour is productive when it
gives to anything a degree of utility, whence results for that thing
an exchangeable value, or an increase of exchangeable value, equal
or superior to the value of the labour employed. Labour is also
productive when it results in a service which has exchangeable
value, although this service is consumed at the same time that it
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550 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
is rendered. It is unproductive when it results in no value. Pro-
ductive labour is of three kinds — that of the man of science, of
the manager of labourers, and that of the workman."
He also combats Smith's doctrine of unproductive labour (Cours.,
Part i, ch. v.) — " A house, a piece of plate, or massive furniture are
very durable products ; clothes are less so ; vegetables, fruits, still less
so. But yet this difference of durability does not in any way affect
their quality of products; all of them are wealth in proportion
to their value. A farmer in the valley of Montmorency draws
annually, by the sale of his cherries, a sum as real as the proprietor
of a portion of the forest of Montmorency draws from cutting wood
It is only the amount of the whole which makes the difference;
and if the cherries produced are of more value than the wood,
the cherries represent the greater production of wealth. Never-
theless, between the instant when these cherries are ripe, and when
they must be eaten, there is no great interval; while the wood,
which serves to form solid buildings, is wealth which lasts a long
time. In reference to production, the amount of utility produced
can only be determined by the price which men set on it. It is
the price which measures the profit which the producer draws
from it.
" Since, in regard to production, the durability of a product is
of no consequence, provided it has value, let us come from products
to products — from those which are necessarily consumed a few
instants after they are completely created, to those which are neces-
sarily consumed at the very instant of their creation ; and we see that
a theatrical performance, for instance, is a product which may differ
from some fruit of the earth by its duration, because its value
cannot last beyond the instant of representation, but which do not
differ in the conditions which make them each a product ; I mean
the property of satisfying one of our wants, of gratifying a taste,
of capacity of being valued and sold. The actors meet to offer
you the result of their labours and talents ; the spectators, on their
side, meet to give in exchange for this agreeable product a sum
which comes itself from the productions in which you or your
parents have taken part. It is an exchange, like any other. Adam
Smith and other Economists have denied to immaterial products
the name of products, and to the labour of which they are the
fruit the name of productive labour, upon the ground that these
products are consumed at once, and have no durability, that they
are not susceptible of accumulation, arid therefore can never in-
crease the capital of the nation.
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" The last reason is founded upon an error. Do we accumulate
the products which are not preserved, such as the fruits of the earth,
which they do not deny to be products ?
" In short, is a value the less a product because it is consumed ?
Are not the greater part of the products of the year destroyed within
the year ? Are we to say of a man who has lived upon his revenue
that he has no revenue because nothing remains to him ?
"Smith's doctrine upon this point does not comprehend the
whole doctrine of production. He places in the class of unpro-
ductive labourers, and regards as burdens on society, a crowd of
men who, in truth, furnish a real utility in exchange for their pay.
The soldier who holds himself in readiness to repel an invasion of
the foreigner, and who repels it at the peril of his life ; the adminis-
trator who devotes his time and his knowledge to the preservation of
the rights of society ; the upright judge — the protector of innocence
and justice ; the professor who diffuses the sciences painfully ac-
quired ; a hundred other professions which comprise persons the
most eminent in dignity, the most eligible by their talents and
personal character, are not less useful to society, and satisfy the
wants which the nation as imperatively requires, as persons do
clothing and shelter.
" If any of these services so rendered are not offered to suffi-
ciently extensive competition; if they are paid for above their value,
it is an abuse with which we have no concern here. Undoubtedly
there is unproductive labour, but that to which a price is freely
given, and which is worth the price put upon it when it may be
refused, is productive labour, however short is the duration of the
product
"According to the writers who refuse to recognise immaterial
products, the artificers who produce the fireworks which are to be
let off next day in a public garden, are productive labourers, while
the actors who prepare the performance of a grand tragedy are
unproductive labourers. Certainly if we could judge by the wealth "
produced and consumed on these two occasions, otherwise than by
the price agreed to be paid for them, we should think that the actors
who prepared the theatrical performance, from the talent required,
from the duration of the performance, from the long remem-
brance one preserves of it, from the delicacy and the elevation
of the sentiments it gives rise to — we should say that these actors
are more productive labourers than the artificers who prepare the
squibs and crackers and wheels, which vanish in smoke.11
These observations of J. B. Say are both sound philosophy and
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552 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
good common sense, and we should have expected that Mill, who
was, in a general way, a disciple of Say's, and who begins his book
by saying that wealth is everything which has a power of purchasing,
which evidently includes services, would have assented to this
argument of Say's. But he has reverted very much to Smith's
doctrine, though he has extended it somewhat After giving the
general definition of wealth, that it is anything which is exchange-
able, he has (Bk. i. ch. iii. § 3) narrowed it down to material
products, and says — "I shall therefore, in this treatise, when
speaking of wealth, understand by it only what is called material
wealth, and by productive labour only those kinds of exertion
which produce utilities embodied in material objects. But in
limiting myself to this sense of the word, I mean to avail myself
of the full extent of that restricted acceptation, and I shall
not refuse the appellation productive to labour which yields no
material product as its direct result, provided that an increase of
material products is its ultimate consequence. Thus, labour ex-
pended in the acquisition of manufacturing skill I class as pro-
ductive, not in virtue of the skill itself, but of the manufactured
products created by the skill, and to the creation of which the
labour of learning the trade is essentially conducive. The labour of
officers of government in affording the protection which, afforded in
some manner or another, is indispensable to the prosperity of
industry, must be classed as productive even of material wealth,
because without it material growth in anything like its present
abundance could not exist. Such labour may be said to be
productive indirectly, or mediately, in opposition to the labour
of the ploughman and the cotton-spinner, which is productive
immediately. They are all alike in this, that they leave the
community richer in material products than they found it: they
increase, or tend to increase, material wealth.
"By Unproductive Labour, on the contrary, will be understood
labour which does not terminate in material wealth, which, however
largely or successfully practised, does not render the community and
the world at large richer in material products, but poorer by all that
is consumed by the labourers while so employed.
"All labour is, in the language of Political Economy (Mill?),
unproductive which ends in immediate enjoyment, without any
increase of the accumulated stock of permanent means of enjoy-
ment And all labour, according to our present definition, must be
classed as unproductive which terminates in a permanent benefit,
however important, provided that an increase of material products
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p.] Productive and Unproductive Labour 553
forms no part of that benefit The labour of saving a friend's life
is not productive, unless the friend is a productive labourer, and
produces more than he consumes. To a religious person, the
saving of a soul must appear a far more important service than the
saving of a life; but he will not therefore call a missionary or a
clergyman productive labourers, unless they teach, as the South Sea
Missionaries have in some cases done, the arts of civilisation in
addition to the doctrines of their religion. It is, on the contrary,
evident that the greater number of missionaries or clergymen a
nation maintains, the less it has to expend on other things ; while
the more it expends judiciously in keeping agriculturists and manu-
facturers at work, the more it will have for every other purpose.
By the former it diminishes, cateris paribus, its stock of material
products, by the latter it increases them.
" Unproductive may be as useful as productive labour ; it may be
more useful even in point of permanent advantage, or its use may
consist only in pleasurable sensation which, when gone, leaves no
trace; or it may not afford even this, but may be absolute waste.
In any case society, or mankind, grow no richer by it, but poorer.
All material products consumed by any one while he produces
nothing, are so much subtracted, for the time, from the material
products which society would otherwise have possessed. But
though* society grows no richer by unproductive labour, the individual
may. An unproductive labourer may receive for his labour, from
those who derive pleasure or benefit from it, remuneration which
may be to him a considerable source of wealth, but his gain is
balanced by their loss ; they may have received a full equivalent for
their expenditure, but they are so much poorer for it. When a
tailor makes a coat and sells it, there is a transfer of the price from
the customer to the tailor, and a coat besides, which did not
previously exist; but what is gained by an actor is a mere transfer
from the spectator's funds to his, leaving no article of wealth for the
spectator's indemnification. Thus the community collectively gains
nothing by the actor's labour, and it loses of his receipts all that
portion which he consumes, retaining only that which he lays by.
A community, however, may add to its wealth by unproductive
labour, at the expense of other communities, as an individual may
at the expense of other individuals. The gains of Italian Opera
singers, German governesses, French ballet dancers, &c, are a
source of wealth, as far as they go, to their respective countries,
if they return thither. The petty states of Greece, especially the
ruder and most backward of these states, were nurseries of soldiers,
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554 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
who hired themselves to the princes and satraps of the East to
carry on useless and destructive wars, and returned, with their
savings, to pass their declining years in their own country; these
were unproductive labourers, and the pay they received, together
with the plunder they took, was an outlay without return to the
countries which furnished it, but, though no gain to the world, it
was a gain to Greece. At a later period, the same country and
its colonies supplied the Roman Empire with another class of
adventurers, who, under the name of philosophers, or rhetoricians,
taught to the youth of the higher classes what were esteemed the
most valuable accomplishments; these were mainly unproductive
labourers, but their ample recompense was a source of wealth to
their own country. In none of these cases was there any accession
of wealth to the world. The services of the labourers, if useful,
were obtained at a sacrifice to the world of a portion of material
wealth; if useless, all that these labourers consumed was, to the
world, waste."
We have given this long extract in order to place before our
readers fairly MilPs views on this important subject, which Malthus
says justly goes to the root of the whole science, and, as Mill says,
brings us back to the discussion of what wealth is. For Productive
Labour is Labour Productive of wealth. We see that Mill has
somewhat extended the term beyond Smith's view of it, for while
Smith only allows those to be productive labourers who are directly
employed in the production of material products, Mill includes also
those who are indirectly employed that way, and this, of course, is a
considerably wider circle of persons. He admits "officers of the
government" to be productive labourers. Hence, managers of
manufactories, foremen, the army, navy, and police, are gathered
within the fold of productive labourers ; but we are not sure whether
the judicial corps rank as " officers of the government." We are in-
clined to think they do, and in that case a barrister who earns an
income by serving private persons would be an unproductive
labourer, but a judge who earns an income by serving the State is a
productive labourer. Authors and editors of newspapers take rank
as productive labourers, while actors, singers, opera dancers, clergy-
men, and others, still remain out in the cold as unproductive
labourers. Bankers may rank as productive labourers, because
the operations of banking do undoubtedly cause a very great
increase of material products. The labour of railway and other
employks engaged in transporting merchandise would be produc-
tive, but in transporting passengers would be unproductive.
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p.] Productive and Unproductive Labour 555
According to the distinction made by Mill, the labour of instructors
teaching artizans and other productive labourers is productive ; the
labour of those engaged in educating gentlemen, or persons not
engaged in business, is unproductive. So the labour of a physician
or surgeon healing a productive labourer is productive; healing
a gentleman is unproductive. According to Mill, the delight
the audience receives from witnessing the performance of a
Garrick, a Kemble, a Siddons, a Talma, a Macready, a Wigan, a
Taglioni, a Fanny Elsier, a Lablache, a Catalani, a Malibran, a
Jenny Lind, a Grisi, a Mario, an Albani, a Titiens, a Patti, or a
Nilsson, is the result of unproductive labour, and the world is poorer
by their maintenance, while the opulence of the world would be
augmented by the labour of as many pastry-cooks.
To shew the extraordinary consequences of Mill's doctrine, we
may take this case. Suppose the head-master of a great public
school has a class of twenty pupils. Suppose that ten of these are
the sons of noblemen and gentlemen of great estate, who will not be
bound to work for their living ; suppose the other ten to be boys of
a poorer class, who are intended for industrial occupations, such as
lawyers, doctors, engineers, or other kinds of business. The head-
master bestows equal care and labour in teaching each set of boys,
and is paid exactly at the same rate for each set. According to
Mill, his labour m teaching the rich boys is unproductive, and his
labour in teaching the poorer boys is productive.
We do not think that such distinctions as these accord with
general usage, and sound practical philosophy, and on this point we
entirely agree with Say, that productive labour is labour which is
productive of profit. When a person bestows his labour in pre-
paring some material substance, or in rendering some service which
he hopes will be required and demanded by others, what does he
expect, and what is his object ? It is to draw forth or produce some
reward in exchange for it. In general language, productive labour
is labour productive of profit Every one considers his labour as
productive, not according to what he offers, but according to what
he obtains in return for it. A theatrical company may produce
several pieces during the season, but whether their labour is produc-
tive or not, depends entirely upon the returns to their treasury. If
they play to empty benches, their labour is unproductive; if the
house is crowded, and their treasury well filled, their labour is pro-
ductive.
And it can easily be shown, from Mill's own words, that this is
the true meaning, because he says that productive labour is labour Vi J "in* $
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556 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
productive of wealth. And what is wealth by his own definition ?
It is anything which has a power of purchasing. Whether, therefore,
anything is wealth or not, purely depends whether anything can be
obtained in exchange for it And of course, the more that can be
obtained in exchange for it, the greater wealth it is, and the more
productive. Hence, by Mill's own definition, whether anything is
productive or not, does not depend on the nature of the thing itself,
but upon the quantity of other things it can draw forth in exchange
for it, or the amount of the returns. If a man can earn a large
income by acting, or singing, or any other service which perishes at
the instant it is performed, his labour is just as much productive as
if he obtained the same returns by selling material goods.
Sir Walter Scott protests with manly good sense against the
doctrine of Adam Smith, that authors are not productive labourers.
J. H. Burton says truly : — " Whatsoever society pays for, and ought
to pay for, may fairly be considered as productive labour for our
present purpose."
Hence, in accordance with general usage, and these extracts from
Say and Burton, we shall always use the term productive labour to
mean labour which earns a profit or reward. A productive labourer
is any labourer who earns an income, no matter whether that
labour terminates in a material product or not; and an unpro-
ductive labourer is one who labours without a reward or profit
And anything whatever which earns a profit is, as Senior says all
Economists are agreed in, Capital.
PROFIT.
The word Profit comes from the Latin proficere^ to make
progress. As the Chorus says in Marlowe's Faustus,
" So soon he Profits in divinity,"
that is, makes progress.
The object and intent of every commercial operation is to make
a profit As George Herbert says —
" The merchant that gains not, loses."
The expense of placing any object in the market is termed the
Cost of Production ; and the hope and intention is that the selling
price, or Value should exceed the Cost of Production.
Profit is the Difference between the Cost of Production of any
commodity and its Price, or Value.
This difference may be in excess of the Cost of Production ; and
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p.] Profit 557
then the Profit is Positive, and is termed a Gain ; but it may be in
defect of the Cost of Production, and the Profit is Negative, and is
termed a Loss.
Profit is estimated by the Ratio between the Difference and the
Cost of Production. Thus if the Cost of Production be ;£ioo,
and the Profit ;£io, it is termed a Profit of 10 per cent
Profit is a general name for the difference between Cost of
Production and Value; whether the matter traded with be
Merchandise of any sort, or Money, or Credit.
There are two grand divisions of commerce : the Commerce in
Merchandise, and the Commerce in Money, or Debts.
Profits made in the Commerce of goods are termed Profits;
Profits made in the Commerce of Money, or Credit, are termed
Interest, or Discount
Definition of Rate of Profit
When we speak of the Rate of anything it invariably means the
Time in which it is done. If any one speaks of the Rate at which
a horse can gallop, or the Rate at which an athlete can run, or the
Rate at which a ship can steam, it always refers to the Time in
which the distance is accomplished. To say that a horse can gallop
at the Rate of 30 miles, or that an athlete can run at the Rate of
14 miles, or that a ship can steam at the Rate of 25 knots, is
evidently a defective form of expression, which conveys no definite
meaning whatever. The Rate of speed in such cases is usually
referred to the hour.
So in speaking of the Rate of Interest, some time — usually
the year — is always expressed. Thus the Rate of Interest is always
said to be so much per cent and/fr annum.
Evidently, therefore, the term Rate of Profit must mean the
amount of Profit made in some certain Time, such as the year.
Hence by analogy, and to compare Rate of Profit with Rate of
Interest, we must speak of the Rate of Profit as so much per cent,
and per annum.
Error of Economists in their Definition of Rate of Profit
Economists, however, have committed an extraordinary over-
sight in their definition of Rate of Profit ; they entirely omit the
element of Time ; and define Rate of Profit to be merely the ratio
of the Profit to the Capital.
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558 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Without giving any clear definition of Rate of Profit, both Smith
and Ricardo never perceived that a Profit made in a day is a very
different Rate of Profit from the same Profit made in a year !
But this error appears clearly in subsequent writers. Thus
MacCulloch says —
"The Rate of Profit is the proportion which the amount of
Profit derived from an undertaking bears to the Capital employed
in it
" It is obvious that the Rate of Profit may be raised in three, but
only in three ways.
i. By Industry becoming more productive.
2. By a reduction in the rate of wages.
3. By a reduction in the amount of taxation.
" And it may be reduced by the opposite circumstances.
1. By Industry becoming less productive.
2. By a rise in the rate of wages.
3. By a rise in the amount of taxation.
" Profits cannot be affected in any way not referable to one or
other of these heads. "
So Malthus says —
"Profit of Stock.— When Stock is employed as Capital in the
Production and Distribution of Wealth, its Profits consist of the
Difference between the Value of the Capital advanced and the
Value of the Commodity when sold or used.
" The Rate of Profit — The percentage proportion which the
Value of the Profits upon any Capital bears to the Value of such
Capital.,,
Again — " The Profits of Capital consist of the difference between
the Value of a Commodity produced, and the Value of the Advances
necessary to produce it ; and these advances consist of accumula-
tions generally made up of wages, rent, taxes, interest, and
Profits.
"The Rate of Profit is the proportion which the difference
between the Value of the Commodity produced, and the Value
of the Advances necessary to produce it, bears to the Value of the
advances. When the Value of the product is great compared with
the Value of the advances, the excess being considerable, the Rate
of Profit will be high. When the Value of the product exceeds but
little the Value of the advances, the difference being small, the Rate
of Profit will be low.
" The varying Rates of Profit, therefore, obviously depend upon
the causes which alter the proportion between the Value and the
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P.] Profit 559
advances necessary to production, and the Value of the product
obtained"
Lastly, Mill says— "The Profits of Stock are the surplus which
remains to the Capitalist after replacing his Capital; and the Ratio
which the surplus bears to the Capital itself, is the Rate of
Profit
"The Rate of Profit is the proportion which the Profit bears to
the Capital In short, if we compare the price paid for
labour and tools with what that labour and those tools will produce,
from this Ratio we may calculate the Rate of Profit
" Profits, then (meaning not gross profits, but the Rate of Profit),
depend (not upon the price of labour, tools, and material, but) upon
the Ratio between the price of labour, tools, and material, and the
produce of them
"The whole of the surplus, after replacing wages, is Profits.
From this it seems to follow that the Ratio between the wages
of labour, and the produce of labour, gives the Rate of Profit. And
then we arrive at Ricardo's principle, that Profits depend upon
wages ; rising as wages fall, and falling as wages rise
"This theory we conceive to be the basis of the true theory
of Profits It is, therefore, strictly true that the Rate of Profit
varies inversely, as the Cost of Production of wages. Profits
cannot rise unless the Cost of Production of wages falls exactly as
much ; nor fall unless it rises.
" The variation, therefore, in the Rate of Profits and those in the
Cost of Production in wages, go hand in hand, and are inseparable.
Mr. Ricardo's principle, that Profits cannot rise unless wages fall, is
strictly true.
"The only expression of the law of Profit which seems to be
correct is, that they depend upon the Cost of the Production of
wages. This must be received as the ultimate principle. . . .
"The Rate of Profit, therefore, tends to fall from the following
causes :
" i. An increase of Capital beyond population, producing in-
creased competition for labour.
" 2. An increase of population, occasioning a demand for an in-
creased quantity of food, which must be produced at a greater cost.
" The Rate of Profit tends to rise from the following causes :
" i. An increase of population beyond Capital, producing in-
creased competition for employment.
" 2. Improvements producing increased cheapness of necessaries,
and other articles habitually consumed by the labourer.'1
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560 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
And he further says — "The Capitalist, then, may be assumed to
make all the advances and receive all the produce. His Profit
consists of the excess of the produce above the advances ; his Rate of
Profit is the Ratio which that excess bears to the amount advanced.
" It thus appears that the two elements on which, and on which
alone, the gains of the Capitalist depend, are first, the magnitude of
the produce ; in other words, the productive power of labour ; and
secondly, the proportion of that produce obtained by the labourers
themselves ; the Ratio which the remuneration of the labourers
bears to the amount they produce. These two things form the data
for determining the gross amount divided as Profit among all the
Capitalists of the country ; but the Rate of Profit, the percentage
on the Capital, &c
" We thus arrive at the conclusion of Ricardo and others, that the
Rate of Profit depends upon wages ; rising as wages fall, and falling
as wages rise.
" The cost of labour, then, is in the language of mathematics, a
function of three variables : the efficiency of labour, the wages of
labour (meaning thereby the real reward of the labourer), and the
greater or less cost at which the articles composing that real reward
can be produced or procured. It is plain that the cost of labour to
the Capitalist must be influenced by each of these three circum-
stances, and by no others. These, therefore, are also the circum-
stances which determine the Rate of Profit, and it cannot be in any
way affected except through one or other of them."
Thus all these writers, men of distinct ability, consider that the
Actual Profit is the same thing as the Rate of Profit ; a most
palpable arithmetical blunder, which leads to most erroneous con-
sequences, we shall show.
Erroneous Doctrines deduced from the erroneous Definition of
Rate of Profit.
We have laid these long extracts before the reader in order that
he may see that what we said is true. The oversight is so manifest
that it is strange that men of ability like Ricardo, MacCulloch,
Malthus, and Mill should have made it. It is a fact that no
Economist has seen that Time is a necessary element in the
definition of Rate of Profit
There is not a single Economist who has seen that a Profit of
5 per cent, made in a day is a different Rate of Profit from a Profit
of 5 per cent, made in a week, a month, or a year !
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P.] Profit 561
It would be just as absurd to say that a sum of 5 per cent, paid
as Interest is the same Rate of Interest, whether it is paid for a loan
of money for a day, a* week, a month, or a year !
And this , palpable arithmetical blunder has necessarily and
logically led to consequences of the deepest practical importance.
For Ricardo and his copyists assert that Profits can only be in-
creased by a reduction of wages, and can only be reduced by an
increase of wages.
Ricardo says that the Value of Commodities is divided into two
portions, one the profits of stock, and the other the wages of
labour, consequently he asserts that " nothing can affect profits but a
rise in wages . . . profits depend on high or low wages."
From these doctrines they drew the necessary conclusion that the
interests of Capitalists and Workmen are always antagonistic to
each other, and that the gain of one must necessarily be the loss of
the other.
It was apparently this hopeless doctrine of Ricardo's, along
with a similar error regarding Rent, and the absurd doctrines of
Malthus on Population, which are also founded on a palpable
arithmetical error, which seemed to show that society must neces-
sarily deteriorate with the increase of numbers, that led a caustic
philosopher of recent times to nickname Economics as the " dismal
science."
Correction of these Erroneous Doctrines.
But a very few sentences will dissipate these gloomy ideas, and
a very simple arithmetical calculation will show that Profits and
Wages may very easily rise together, and that consequently there is
no such necessary antagonism between the interests of Capitalists
and Workmen as these Economists allege.
Suppose that the Capital advanced is ;£ioo, and the Profit is ^20.
Then if the Profit is made in a Year> the Rate of Profit is
evidently 20 per cent per annum.
If the Profit is made in a Months the rate of Profit is evidently
240 per cent, and per annum.
If the Profit is made in a Week, the Rate of Profit is evidently
1,040 per cent and per annum.
If the Profit is made in a Day, the Rate of Profit is evidently
7,300 per cent and per annum.
These principles are so clear as to be beyond dispute, and we can
test the doctrines of these writers by them. They repeatedly assert
2 o
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562 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
that the Rate of Profit can by no possibility be increased except by
a diminution of wages.
But the simplest arithmetical calculation shows that, supposing
the Capital and the actual Profits to remain exactly the same, the
Rate of Profit may be enormously increased by the accelerated
rapidity with which Profits are made.
And similarly, if the Capital and the actual Profits remain the
same, the Rate of Profit may be immensely diminished by a
retardation of the periods in which they are made.
So also it is quite easy to show that Wages may be increased,
and the actual Profit diminished, and yet the Rate of Profit greatly
increased.
Suppose, as before, the Capital is ;£ioo, and the Profit ^20
made in a year.
Suppose that the period of making the Profit is reduced to a
month, then the Rate of Profit is 240 per cent, per annum.
Suppose that, in consequence of making the greater Rate of
Profit, the Capitalist advances Wages ^5. Then Cost of Produc-
tion is ^105, and the Profit is ^15, made in a month, or nearly
14*3 per cent, per month, which is Profit at the Rate of more than
167 per cent, and per annum.
Suppose a still more accelerated sale, and that the trader makes
the Profit of ^20 in one day : then, as we have seen above, that is
a Profit at the Rate of 7,300 per cent. and/*r annum.
Suppose that in consequence of this greatly increased Rate of
Profit, the trader advances wages to ^110. Then, with an outlay
of ;£u o, he makes a Profit of ^10 in one day: being more than
9 per cent, per day: or at the Rate of more than 3,318 per cent
and per annum.
Hence, while Price remains exactly the same, Wages may be
considerably, and Rate of Profit may be enormously, increased by
the simple acceleration of the periods of return.
These cases may, of course, be reversed. The Price may remain
the same, the wages diminished, the actual Profits increased, and
yet the Rate of Profit enormously diminished by the simple retarda-
tion of the periods of sale.
So also the Price may be reduced, and wages increased, and
therefore the actual Profit reduced both by an increase of wages
and a reduction of Price, and yet the Rate of Profit greatly
increased.
Suppose that in the last case the trader, in consequence of
competition or for any other reason, reduces prices by ^5, so that
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P.] Profit 563
as before, wages came to ;£no: then actual profits are £5 : this
would still be Profit at the rate of 4*545 per cent, per day, or more
than 1,659 per cent, per annum.
Thus it is clearly proved that by the simple acceleration of
rapidity of sale, Price may be reduced, wages may be increased,
actual Profit reduced ; and yet the Rate of Profit increased : that
is, the Capitalist, the Workman, and the Customer may all gain
together : and of course, e converso, they may all lose together by
the reverse process of retarding the periods of return.
There may therefore very well be, and in most cases there is, a
solidarity of interests between Customer, Capitalist, and Workman :
and not a necessary antagonism, according to the doctrine of
Ricardo and his copyists. The evident error of these writers arises
from their having entirely omitted the most potent method of
increasing the Rate of Profit: namely, accelerating the periods of
return.
The current doctrine of Economists is that Rate of Profit varies
directly as the excess of the Profit above the Cost of Production :
whereas the true doctrine is —
Rate Of Profit varies Directly as the excess of the Profit above
the Cost of Production^ and Inversely as the Time in which it
is made.
Economists have adopted this manifest error from the usage of
traders. When a banker charges his customer Interest, or Dis-
count, or an advance, the Rate per cent, and per annum is agreed
upon, and the customer pays a sum according to the Time of the
advance. But when a trader buys goods from a wholesale dealer,
he simply adds on to the goods a percentage on the wholesale price,
and makes no difference whether he sells the next day, the next
week, the next month, or the next year: and he erroneously calls
that the Rate of Profit: thus throwing great obscurity and mis-
conception over the whole subject. But certainly professed writers
on Economics ought to have perceived this error and rectified it.
Examples of Trading Profits.
To show how an apparently very moderate actual Profit may be a
high Rate of Profit, we may take two simple examples.
A retail bookseller is entitled, by the custom of trade, to a reduc-
tion of 25 per cent off the published price of the work. Many
retail* booksellers offer to obtain any book for their customers at a
discount of 20 per cent, off the published price. Suppose the book
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564 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
is ordered one day and paid for the next. The customer is pleased
at getting the book so cheap, and no one grudges the bookseller his
apparently very modest profit of 5 per cent.
Let us now see what the Rate of Profit is. By such an operation
he gains a Profit of 5 per cent on three-fourths of the price of the
book in one day : which is an actual Profit of 6-666 per cent per
day : which is at the rate of more than 2,433 P^ cen^- and per
annum. Traders complain when bankers charge 6 per cent per
annum : what would they say if a banker charged them 6 per cent
per day ?
A costermonger buys baskets of strawberries in Covent Garden
market at 2 jd., and sells them the same afternoon at 3d. : every one
would say that that is a very moderate Profit Yet it is a Profit of
one-eleventh part, or more than 9 per cent per day : which is a
Rate of Profit of more than 3,300 per cent, per annum.
It would be too long here to exhibit all the confusion and mis-
apprehension in Economics caused by this patently erroneous
definition of Rate of Profit by Economists. We may refer to the
chapter on Profits in our Elements of Economics. It is sufficient to
say that the rectification of this arithmetical definition of Rate of
Profit has brought down whole masses of Economic dogma, just as
a barrel of dynamite would bring down the Monument.
PROMISSORY NOTE.
A Promissory Note is one form of Incorporeal Property; it is
a Jus in personam.
An unconditional written Promise made by a person to pay
absolutely, and at all events, (1) a certain sum of Money (2) to
a certain person (3) at a certain event, is, in modern language*
termed a Promissory Note, or shortly a Note.
The following is the usual form of a Promissory Note :
"j£l25 &s- &/. London, May 4th, 1896.
" Three months after date I promise to pay John Jones, or order,
the sum of one hundred and twenty-five pounds, six shillings, and
eightpence. « William Johnson."
A Promissory Note is one form of Credit. All Notes are part
of the Circulating Medium or Currency. They are termed in
law Valuable Securities.
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P.] Property 565
PROPERTY.
It is now recognised that there are three orders of Economic, or
Exchangeable, Quantities, or Wealth : (1) Material things of all
kinds : (2) Personal Qualities in the forms of (a) and (b) Credit :
and (3) Abstract Rights of a great variety of kinds. All these things
are capable of having their Value measured in Money, or possess
the Quality of Exchangeability : they may be bought and sold, or
exchanged : and therefore they must all, by the Laws of Natural
Philosophy, be included under the term Wealth.
The next thing to be done is to find a General Term which will
include them all : and this general term is found in the term
Property. And when we understand the true and original meaning
of the word Property^ it will throw a blaze of light over the whole
science of Economics, and clear up all the difficulties which the word
Wealth has given rise to. The true meaning of the word Property
is the key to the whole Sciences of Jurisprudence and Economics.
Most persons when they hear the word Property, think of some
material things, such as lands, houses, cattle, corn, money, &c. But
this is not the true and original meaning of the word Property.
Property in its true and original meaning is not any Thing at all
material or otherwise : but it is the Ownership, or Absolute Right to
something.
Savages have very feeble notions of Abstract Rights. Their ideas
of Wealth are something they can lay hold of : something which
they can only acquire by violence, and which they can only retain
by bodily force. They have no ideas of Abstract Rights separated
from anything material.
So in archaic jurisprudence a person's possessions were called
Mancipium: because they were supposed to be acquired by the
strong hand : and if not held with a very firm grasp, they would
probably be lost But as civilisation progressed, and firm government
succeeded barbarism, men's ideas were transferred from the actual
material things to the Rights to them. Thus in course of time the
word Mancipium, which originally meant the material things which
were held by the hand, came to mean the Absolute Right to them : and
in early Roman Law Mancipium came to mean Absolute Ownership.
Thus Lucretius (De Rcrwn Naturd, iii. 971) says —
" Vitaque Mancipio nuili datur, omnibus usu."
"And Life is given in absolute Ownership to none, but only as a
Loan to all?
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566 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
In process of time Property came to be denoted by a word which
meant a pure Abstract Right.
All the possessions of the family belonged to the family as a
whole (Domus). But the head of the house (Dominus, ScoTroTrp)
alone exercised all Rights over them.. He alone had the absolute
ownership of his familia, or household, including his wife, children,
slaves, and all its possessions. Hence this right was called
Dominium, 8«nroT€ia, and Dominium was always used in Roman law
to denote absolute Ownership.
So long as the Patria Potestas retained its pristine rigour, no
member of the family could have any individual Rights to things.
But in the time of the early Emperors this extreme rigour of the
patria potestas began to be relaxed In some cases individual
members of the family were allowed to have Rights to possessions,
independently of the head of the house and its other members ; and
this Right was termed Proprietas.
This Right of holding possessions independently of the other
members of the family was considerably extended by subsequent
Emperors, and was always called Proprietas.
Proprietas, therefore, in Roman Law meant the absolute and
exclusive Right which a person had to anything, independently
of any one else, and was synonymous with Dominium. Neratius, a
jurist of the time of Hadrian, says, " Proprietas id est Dominium "
—"Property that is Otvnership."
So Gaius says, " Non solum autem Proprietas per eos quos in
potestate habemus adquiritur nobis."
"Not only then do we acquire absolute Property through those whom
we have in our power \"
So also Justinian, " Transfert Proprietatem rerum."
" Transfers the Property in the goods"
And in other instances too numerous to cite.
Thus the word Proprietas in Roman Law never meant a material
thing, it invariably meant the exclusive and absolute Right to
something ; the thing itself was Materia.
Meaning of the word Property in English.
So also in early English the word Property invariably meant a
Right, and not a Thing.
Thus grand old Wycliffe says, " They will have Property in ghostly
goods where no Property may be, and have no Property in worldly
goods where Christian men may have Property."
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p.] Property 567
So Bacon invariably uses the word Property to mean a Right,
and never a Thing. He says one of the uses of the Law " is to
dispose of the Property of their goods and chattels." He explains
the various methods by which Property in goods and chattels may be
acquired. So he speaks of the "Property, or Interest, in a timber tree."
In Comyns's great Digest of the Law there is not a
single instance of the word Property being applied to material
things. He invariably uses it to mean Absolute Ownership.
Thus up to the middle of the last century Property was invariably
used to mean Absolute Ownership, and was never applied, at least
in any work of authority, to material substances.
Every Jurist knows that the true meaning of Property is
a Right, and not a Thing. Thus Erskine says, "The sovereign,
or real, Right is that of Property, which is the Right of using
and disposing a subject as our own, except so far as we are
restrained by law or paction."
This meaning of Property has been understood by Economists as
well as by Jurists. Thus Mercifere de la Rivifere, one of the most
eminent of the French Economists, says, " Property is nothing but
the Right to enjoy. .... It is seen that there is but one Right of
property, that is a Right in a person, but which changes its name
according to the nature of the object to which it is applied."
The word Property is in no way restricted to the Rights to material
substances ; it is also applied to the Rights to abstract Rights.
Thus landed Property means Rights to lands and houses ; Real
Property means Rights to realty : Personal Property means rights to
Personal chattels.
Funded Property is the Right to demand a series of payments
from the nation; Literary Property is the Right to profits from
works of literature ; Artistic Property is the Right to profits from
works of art ; Dramatic Property is the Right to receive profits from
dramatic representations; Newspaper Property is the Right to
the profits from publishing a newspaper. So there are many other
kinds of Incorporeal Property, such as Shares in Commercial
Companies, the Goodwill of a business, a professional Practice,
Patents, Tithes, Advowsons, Shootings, Fishings, Market Rights,
and many other kinds of Valuable Rights.
So when a person has sold goods on credit he acquires a Right
of action, or Credit, or a Debt, in exchange for them, and he
has a Property in this Right of action, Credit, or Debt, and can sell
it like any material chattel.
So a person has the Property in his own character, his industrial
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568 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
and mercantile capacity. Smith says that a man's Labour is his
most sacred Property. So to a banker, a merchant, or a trader, his
Credit is his most sacred Property.
This appears more clearly in the law of Scotland, in which lands
and houses, which are termed Real Property in the law of England,
are termed Heritable Rights, because the Rights to them pass to the
heir. And what is termed Personal Property in the law of England
is termed Movable Rights, because the Rights to them pass or move
to the executor; and under the term Movable Rights, Rights of
action, Credits, or Debts are included. Hence, Abstract Rights are
the subjects of Property exactly in the same way as material chattels.
When the Socialists and Communists wish to destroy Property, it
is not the material things they wish to destroy, but the exclusive
Rights which private persons have in them.
There is besides a whole class of Latin words, which, like
Mandpium, in early times and in classical Latin meant material
things, but which in the progress of civilisation and jurisprudence,
and in modern mercantile Law, have come to mean mere Abstract
Rights and Duties; and by a reverse process most unfortunately
many words, which, like Property, really mean Abstract Rights, have
been perverted to mean material things— to the great confusion of
Jurisprudence and Economics.
The word Property means Absolute, Entire, and Exclusive Owner-
ship. It is the Right to deal with the objects — Material, Immaterial,
and Incorporeal — in any way in which the owner pleases, except in
so far as he is restrained by law or paction.
The term Property comprehends —
i. The Jus Possidendi, or the Right of Possession of the object
2. The Jus Utendi, or the Right of using it in any way the
owner pleases.
3. The Jus Fruendi, or the Right of appropriating any fruits or
profits from it.
4. The Jus Abutendi, or the Right of destroying or alienating it.
5. The Jus Vindicandi, or the Right of recovering it, if found
. in the wrongful possession of anyone.
Property, or Dominion, therefore, does not mean any single Right,
but an aggregate, or bundle of Rights : it comprehends the Totality
of Rights which can be exercised over anything.
Economic Quantities, then, or Economic Rights, are then of
three distinct orders —
1. Rights, or Property, in some material thing which has already
been acquired.
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P.] Property 569
2. Rights, or Property, in labour or services.
3. Rights, or Property, in something, which is only to be acquired
at some future time.
Now, we observe that the first and third of the Economic
Quantities, or Rights, enumerated above are Inverse, or Opposite, to
each other. Property, like Janus, has two faces, placed back to
back. It regards the Past and the Future. We may buy and sell
the Right to a thing which has already been acquired in time past;
and we can also buy and sell the Right to a thing which is only
to be acquired in time future.
It is one of the innumerable applications of the Algebraical
Signs + and - , that if any point in time be taken as o, then Time
before this epoch and Time after this epoch are denoted by the
opposite signs + and - ; which sign to denote either Time being
a matter of pure convention.
Let us denote Time present by o ; Time past by + ; and Time
future by - .
It will be represented thus—
&c., + 5, + 4, + 3> + 2> + ^Oi -if -2, -3-4-5- &c->
and it is evident that the Totality of Time from any year preceding
the given era o to any year subsequent to the given era will be the
sum of the Positive years and the Negative years.
Thus, if we take the Christian era as o, years before it as Positive,
and years after it as Negative, then the total period from the founda-
tion of Rome to the present time is + 753 years, together with
- 1895 years; or 2,648 years in all.
Hence the products which have already been acquired in the Past,
or Positive years, may be termed Positive Products ; and the pro-
ducts which are to be acquired in the Future, or Negative years,
may be termed Negative Products.
Now in all mathematical and physical sciences, it is invariably the
custom to denote similar quantities, but of opposite qualities, by the
opposite signs + and - .
Hence as a matter of simple convenience, and following the
invariable custom in all mathematical and physical sciences, if
we denote Property in a product which has already been acquired
as Positive, we may, as a mark of distinction, denote Property
in a product which is only to be acquired in time Future as
Negative.
Now Property in a thing, which has already come into existence,
is Corporeal or Material Property; and as we have assumed above
time past as positive, Corporeal or Material Property may be termed
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570
Fundamental Concepts and Axioms
[Bk. IL
a Positive Economic Quantity; and Property in a thing to be
acquired at some future time is Incorporeal Property; and as we
have above denoted time future as negative, Incorporeal Property
may be aptly designated as a Negative Economic Quantity.
And as in all mathematical and physical sciences, the whole
science comprehends both Positive Quantities and Negative
Quantities; so the whole Science of Economics comprehends
both Positive Economic Quantities and Negative Economic
Quantities : both Corporeal Property and Incorporeal Property.
By this means we double the field of Economics as usually
treated; and we do in Economics what these have done in the
various mathematical and physical sciences, who introduced and
made Negative Quantities an integral part of them.
By this means we are enabled to obtain the solution of problems
which have hitherto baffled all Economists, and it is by this means
only that the Theory of Credit can be explained.
Conspectus of the Totality of Property.
As Labour and Services perish in the very act of being performed,
we may denote Property in them as Property in the present.
The other two kinds of Property are of continuous endurance,
and may be transferred any number of times, and we may
denote them thus: —
Property in the Products
of the Past
Property Consists of
Present Property in the Products
Time of the Future
Lands, Houses, &c.
Money already earned by a
Merchant.
Premises, Stock of Goods
in a Shop.
Money already earned by a
Professional Man.
The Capital of a Company.
Annual Income for ever.
His Credit.
The Goodwill.
The Practice.
The Shares.
Annuities of all sorts: the
Funds, Tolls, Ferries,
Patents, Ground Rents,
&c.
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R.] Rent 571
Now each kind of Property may be valued in money; may be
bought and sold or exchanged ; and is therefore Wealth, as declared
1300 years ago in Roman Law. By including both species of
Property under the term Wealth, we double the field of Economics
as usually treated, and give it the same extension as introducing
Negative Quantities does in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy.
RENT.
The word Rent (Reditus) means any income or revenue derived
from any source. It means an Annuity, or the Right to receive a
series of payments.
Thus Chaucer, describing the well-to-do citizens of London,
says "They had enough of Chattels and of Rent"
So, in "The Monk's Tale"—
"And seyde — 'King, God to thy fader sente
Glorie and honour, regne, tresour, Rente."
"When as he with his owen hand slew thee,
Succeeding in thy regne, and in thy Rente. M
Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount says —
"Who fixed have their hearts and whole intents
On sensual lust, on dignity, and Rents."
Formerly it was also applied to the interest paid for the use of
money as a permanent loan. Thus, when Charles II. shut up the
Exchequer, and confiscated the funds of the bankers lodged in it,
he promised them a yearly Rent of 6 per cent
So in Boswell's "Johnson" it is said that a lady left Mrs.
Williams an "annual Rent."
The use of the word Rent, however, as applied to the interest
paid for a loan of money has been discontinued in English. The
only instance that we are aware of where it is used to denote
persons who acquired Rights in return for a loan of Money are the
Renters of Drury Lane and Covent Garden Theatres. They are
persons and their assignees who subscribed to rebuild the Theatres
after they were burnt down, and received in exchange certain Rights
of admission to the performances.
The word, however, is still used in this sense on the Continent.
The Funds are there still called Rentes, a fundholder is still called
a Rentier. Turgot speaks of the Interit Fonder and the Interit
Rentier, or the Landed Interest and the Moneyed Interest.
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572 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
The word Rent in English is now usually restricted to the Right
to receive compensation for the use of lands, houses, pews, telegraph
wires, mint dies, copyrights, patents, and other property held for a
period of time.
The subject of Rent has acquired an exaggerated notoriety in
Economics, from a controversy on the Rent of land which arose
from Smith's self-contradictions on Rent: in one set of passages
Smith maintains that Rent is a cause of Price, i.e. that it raises the
price of corn to the Consumer ; in another set he alleges that Rent
is the effect of Price, i.e. that it comes out of Price and, therefore,
does not raise it.
The whole practical importance of the question is reduced to
this — If the landlords were to forego their Rents, would corn be
any the cheaper to the Consumer ?
Smith says (Book i. ch. 6) — " In the price of corn, one part pays
the rent of the landlord, another pays the wages or maintenance of
the labourers and labouring cattle employed in producing it, and the
third pays the profit of the farmer. These three parts seem either
immediately or ultimately to make up the whole price of com."
Again — "Wages, Profit, and Rent are the three original sources
of all revenue, as well as of all exchangeable value " !
Again — " As in a civilized country, there are but few commodities
of which the exchangeable value rises from labour only, rent and
profit contributing largely to that of the far greater part of them."
In the next chapter he says that there is, in every society or
neighbourhood, an ordinary or average rate of wages, profit, and
also of rent; the latter regulated partly by the general circumstances
of the society or neighbourhood in which the land is situated, and
partly by the natural or improved fertility of the land.
" These ordinary or average rates may be called the natural rates
of wages, profit, and rent, at the time and place at which they
commonly prevail.
" When the price of any commodity is neither more nor less than
what is sufficient to pay the rent of the land, the wages of the
labour, and the profits of the stock employed in raising, preparing,
and bringing it to market, according to their natural rates, the
commodity is then sold for what may be called its natural price.
"The commodity is then sold precisely for what it is worth (!), or
for what it really costs the person who brings it to market."
[The worth of the commodity is what the producer can obtain in
exchange for it]
" The actual price at which any commodity is commonly sold is
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R.] Rent 573
called its market price. It may either be above, or below, or
exactly the same with its natural price. ^
" The market price of every particular commodity is regulated by
the proportion between the quantity which is actually brought to
market, and the demand of those who are willing to pay the
natural price of the commodity, or the whole value of the
rent, labour, and profit which must be paid in order to bring
it thither."
Now these extracts affirm, as clearly as can be, that Rent,
Wages, and Profit enter into the price of corn exactly in the same
way, so that if one be a cause of high price, the others must
be so too.
But in Bk. I. ch. ii., on the Rent of Land, Smith says, " Rent, it
is to be observed, enters into the composition of the price of com-
modities in a different way from Wages and Profit. High or low
wages and profit are the causes of high or low price; high or low
rent is the effect of it It is because high or low wages and profit
must be paid in order to bring a particular commodity to market,
that its price is high or low. But it is because its price is high or
low, a great deal more, a very little more, or no more than what is
sufficient to pay those wages and profit, that it affords a high rent or
a low rent, or no rent at all."
Now these doctrines of Smith, as to Rent, are manifestly self-con-
tradictory. In the first set he manifestly makes Rent enter into
price in the same way as Wages and Profits, and to be a cause
of Price; in the second he makes Rent to enter into Price in
the opposite way to Wages and Profit, and to be the effect of
Price.
Smith's work was published in 1776, a few weeks before Hume
died. The first night that Hume read it, the sagacious philosopher
immediately detected Smith's error in alleging that the payment of
Rent raised the price of corn, and wrote to tell him of it.
It was this manifest self-contradiction in Smith's doctrine of Rent
that gave rise to the long contest on the Theory of Rent It was
commenced by a writer named Anderson, who was a practical
farmer, and also an extensive writer on agricultural subjects. He
has a title to be remembered by posterity as the inventor of the two-
horse plough without wheels, to which the immense progress of
Scottish agriculture is mainly due. In 1777 a new corn bill was
brought into Parliament, and Anderson wrote a pamphlet called An
Inquiry into the Nature of the Corn Laws, for the purpose of
advocating a sliding bounty. In the course of this he shows the
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574 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
entire fallacy of Smith's idea that the payment of rent influences the
price of corn (McLcod's Dictionary of Political Economy^ Art
Anderson). He shows that the price of corn entirely depends upon
Supply and Demand, and that all the variations in price are caused
by a change in the relation of supply and demand. He shows well
that rents entirely depend on the price of corn, and that any rise in
the price would only temporarily benefit the farmer, but ultimately it
would go entirely to the landlord.
In a note at page 45 of this pamphlet he broaches his Theory of
Rent, which is often supposed to be identical with Ricardo's Theory
of Rent, but they are, as we shall show, radically different
" It is not, however, the Rent of the land which determines the
price of the produce, but it is the price of the produce which
determines the Rent of the land."
He says that in every country there are a variety of soils, which
may be supposed to proceed in regularly decreasing gradations
of fertility ; that the price of the produce is regulated solely by the
Supply and the Demand, and that the price of corn indicates the
waste soil upon which corn can be grown so as to pay its expenses.
The possessors of the worst fields could only just afford to produce
it at that price, but they could not afford to pay any Rent. Those
who possessed more fertile lands would have a profit above that, and
that profit would afford Rent.
Anderson then asks if the landlords were, from patriotism, to lower
or forego their rents, would that reduce the price of corn? He
shows that it would not, because the people require the produce of
all the lands as before, and must pay the price necessary to induce
the owner to cultivate them. The only consequence, therefore, of
such a piece of Quixotism on the part of the landlords would be
that the class of farmers would be enriched, without producing the
smallest benefit to the consumers of grain.
Everyone with the least practical knowledge of agriculture will see
that Anderson's reasoning is quite correct. It is the price of com
which indicates the worst soil on which com can be grown : and as
the required price must be paid in order to enable corn to be pro-
duced in sufficient quantities to satisfy the demand, it can make no
difference to the Consumer whether the Price goes entirely to the
farmer or is divided between the landlord and the farmer.
Anderson's reasoning, therefore, is correct on the supposition that
there are different degrees of fertility in the lands of the country.
But it would appear from such reasoning that differences of fertility
in the soil were the necessary condition of Rent being paid ; and
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r.] Rent 575
that if all the soil was of uniform fertility no such thing as Rent
could be paid.
However, such a consequence as this is manifestly contrary to
common sense, and consequently there must be a flaw in the
reasoning.
On Rioardo'8 Theory of Rent
Ricardo begins by defining Rent to be that portion of the
produce of the earth which is paid to the landlord for the use of
the original and indestructible powers of the soil.
This definition is purely arbitrary and futile: the earth has no
original and indestructible powers in the sense Ricardo means. The
only original and indestructible power that the land has is extent
There is scarcely any land whatever which is fit for cultivation
without a very considerable expenditure of Labour and Capital:
and the powers of the earth are so far from being indestructible
that, except in a few favoured regions, they wear out very fast, and
require a constant renewal of Labour and Capital to keep it in a fit
state for cultivation.
He then says — "It is often, however, confounded with the
Interest and Profit of Capital, and in popular language the term
is applied to whatever is annually paid by a farmer to the landlord.
If of two adjoining farms of the same extent, and of the same
natural fertility, one had all the convenience of farming buildings t
and, besides, was properly drained and manured, and advan-
tageously divided by hedges, fences, and walls, while the other
had none of these advantages, more remuneration would naturally
be paid for the use of one than for the use of the other: yet in
both cases this remuneration would be called Rent. But it is
evident that a portion only of the money annually to be paid
for the improved farm would be given for the original and in-
destructible powers of the soil: the other portion would be paid
for the use of the Capital which had been employed in ameliorat-
ing the quality of the land, and in erecting such buildings as were
necessary to secure and preserve the produce."
With respect to this we may say that Rent is the word invariably
applied to remuneration paid for the use of houses and buildings,
and therefore nothing can be more proper than to include the sum
paid for them in Rent. With respect to the other things which are
necessary for the due cultivation of the farm, to deny the name of
Rent to the remuneration paid for them is as frivolous as to say,
speaking of a house, that the word Rent is to be restricted to the
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576 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
sum paid for the use of the bare walls, but that the remuneration
paid for the painting, papering, fitting-up, and all the decorations is
to be called Interest for Capital.
Ricardo then says — "Adam Smith sometimes speaks of Rent in
the strict sense to which I am desirous of confining it, but more
often in the popular sense in which the term is usually employed.
He tells us that the demand for timber, and its consequent high
price in the more southern countries of Europe, caused a Rent to
be paid for forests in Norway which could before afford no Rent.
It is not, however, evident that the person who paid what he calls
Rent paid it in consideration of the valuable commodity which was
then standing on the land, and that he actually repaid himself, with
a profit, by the sale of the timber. If, indeed, after the timber was
removed, any compensation were paid to the landlord for the use
of the land, for the purpose of growing timber, or any other
produce, with a view to future demand, such compensation might
justly be called Rent, because it would be paid for the productive
powers of the land ; but in the case stated by Adam Smith, the
compensation was paid for the liberty of removing and selling the
timber, and not for the liberty of growing it."
This objection of Ricardo's is manifestly of no weight, because
Rent is in all such cases part of the profits of the produce of the
soil, and the distinction made between the remuneration paid for
the right of cutting that timber and the right of growing future
timber is manifestly futile, because, though the sum paid for that
single crop is limited, it is manifestly paid for the use of the produc-
tive powers of the earth, so far as regards that crop, just as much as
the future produce of the productive powers of the earth.
Ricardo then goes on, " He speaks also of the rent of coal mines
and of stone quarries, to which the same observation applies — that
the compensation given for the mine or quarry is paid for the value
of the coal or stone which can be removed from them, and has no
connection with the original and indestructible powers of the land.
This is a distinction of great importance in an inquiry concerning
Rent and Profits, for it is found that the laws which regulate the
progress of Rent are widely different from those which regulate the
progress of Profits, and seldom operate in the same direction."
The objection taken by Ricardo to Adam Smith has no force
whatever. The fact is, that his own definition of Rent is purely
arbitrary and futile. It is a matter of utter impossibility to
distinguish the portion of the remuneration which is paid for the
use of the original and indestructible powers of the soil, and the
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R.] Rent 577
portion which is paid as interest of Capital expended upon it. To
do that strictly, all the labour which has been expended upon
bringing it from a state of nature must be called Capital expended
upon it, and the remuneration paid for that must be subtracted
from the Rent. And then what will remain for Rent ? The fact is
that the separation of Rent and Profit, as proposed by Ricardo, is a
thing that cannot be effected, and is nothing more than a play upon
words.
Having thus proposed a definition of Rent which is highly
incorrect, Ricardo then goes on to explain how Rent arises. He
says that on the first settling of a country in which there is an
abundance of rich and fertile land, a very small proportion of which
is required to be cultivated for the support of the actual population,
or indeed can be cultivated with the Capital which the population
can command, there will be no Rent. For no one would pay for
the use of land, when there was an abundant quantity not yet
appropriated, and therefore at the disposal of whosoever might
choose to cultivate it, any more than he would pay Rent for the
use of air, and water, or any other of the gifts of Nature, which exist
in boundless quantities. It is only, then, because land is not
unlimited in quantity, and uniform in quality, and because in the
progress of population, land of an inferior quality or less
advantageously situated, is called into cultivation, that Rent is
ever paid for the use of it. "When, in the progress of society,
land of the second degree of fertility is taken into cultivation, Rent
immediately commences on that of the first quality, and the amount
of that Rent will depend on the difference of these two portions of
land. When land of the third quality is taken into cultivation, Rent
immediately commences on the second, and it is regulated as before
by the difference of their productive powers. At the same time the
Rent of the first quality will rise, for that must always be above the
Rent of the second, by the difference between the produce which
they yield, with a given quantity of Capital and Labour. With
every step in the progress of population which shall oblige a
country to have recourse to land of a worse quality to enable it
to raise its supply of food, Rent on all the more fertile land
will rise."
Ricardo proceeds : — " Rent is always the difference between the
produce obtained by the employment of two equal quantities of
Capital and Labour." — "Rent invariably proceeds from the em-
ployment of an additional quantity of Labour with a proportionally
less return"; and he then immediately proceeds to say, "When
2 P
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578 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. IL
land of an inferior quality is taken into cultivation, the exchangeable
value of raw produce will rise, because more Labour is required
to produce it"
Ricardo's doctrine is — "that corn which is produced by the
greatest quantity of Labour is the regulator of the price of corn."
And, again — "The reason, then, why raw produce rises in com-
parative value, is because more Labour is employed in the production
of the last portion obtained, and not because a Rent is paid to
the landlord. The value of corn is regulated by the quantity of
Labour bestowed on its production on that quality of land, or with
that portion of capital, which pays no Rent. Corn is not high
because a Rent is paid, but a Rent is paid because corn is high ;
and it has been justly observed that no reduction would take place
in the price of corn, although landlords should forego the whole
of their Rent. Such a measure would only enable some farmers
to live like gentlemen, but would not diminish the quantity of
Labour necessary to raise raw produce on the least productive land
in cultivation.
It is often said that Anderson was the originator of the Theory
of Rent, which Ricardo afterwards adopted and developed. But,
on comparing the two theories, it will be seen that though they
have one part in common, namely, considering that Rent arises
from differences in the fertility of soils, yet they are fundamentally
different. Anderson, as a practical farmer, makes the high price
of corn to proceed exclusively from the great Demand for it. This
increased price causes it to be profitable to bring lands of decreasing
fertility into cultivation, and consequently the lands which can
produce corn at a cheaper rate can afford to pay a Rent But
Ricardo makes the whole price of corn to be regulated by the
"Quantity of Labour" bestowed in obtaining the last quantity
produced. Therefore, of course, all the corn produced at a cheaper
rate can afford to pay a Rent. Now it so happens that the practical
result of both theories is identical, and it is true. It is perfectly
clear that the payment of Rent does not in any way influence
the price of corn, and consequently if the landlords were to forego
their Rents, it would not make corn any the cheaper, but the Rents
would go into the pockets of the farmers. But as a question of
Science, the Theories are fundamentally distinct: for Anderson's
theory makes the Value of corn to be governed solely by Demand
and supply; Ricardo's theory by "Quantity of Labour," or "Cost
of Production."
In both theories, however, differences of the fertility of soils are
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RO Rent 579
made the necessary condition of Rent arising, which we shall show
hereafter is an error.
All believers in Ricardo's theory of Rent make Rent to arise from
the differences in the fertility of soils : thus McCulloch says : — " The
fundamental position laid down by Dr. Smith, that there are certain
species of produce that always yield Rent, is contradicted by the
widest and most comprehensive experience. Were such the case,
Rents would always exist, whereas they are uniformly unknown
in the earlier stages of society. The truth is that Rent is entirely
a consequence of the decreasing productiveness of the soils succes-
sively brought under cultivation as society advances, or rather of
the decreasing productiveness of the Capitals successively applied
to them. It is never heard of in newly-settled countries, such as
New Holland, Illinois, or Indiana, nor in any country where none
but the best of the good soils are cultivated. It only begins to
appear when cultivation has been extended to inferior lands ; and
it increases according to the extent to which they are brought under
tillage, and diminishes according as their culture is relinquished."
McCulloch has a long note at the end of his edition of Smith,
but as it contains nothing different from Ricardo, it is superfluous
to quote it. McCulloch's observation that Rent does not arise
in new countries where there is abundance of fertile land would
be easily answered if it were true, because Rent cannot arise until
the relation of Landlord and Tenant is established; Rent being
the sum paid to a landlord for the use of land ; and of course where
there is abundance of land, every one would rather have land of
his own than pay Rent to a landlord. And in the next place, it
is not true that Rent does not exist in these new setded countries ;
because the land in them belongs to the Government, and it is quite
usual for the Government to demand a Rent for tracts of land.
It is true, some colonies, for the sake of encouraging immigration,
do give a certain amount of land free to desirable settlers; but
McCulloch's assertion that Rent is never paid in new settled
countries is wholly contrary to fact
Mill goes so far as to call Ricardo's Theory of Rent the pons
asinorum of Economics. He adopts Ricardo's division of the
classes of commodities, and says — "The value, therefore, of an
article is determined by the cost of that portion of the supply which
is produced and brought to market at the greatest expense. This is
the Law of Value of the third of the three classes into which all
commodities are divided." Again he says — " Rent, we again see, is
the difference between the unequal returns to different parts of the
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580 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. n.
capital employed on the soil." — " Thus Rent is, as we have already
seen, no cause of Value, but the price of the privilege which the
inequality of the returns to different portions of agricultural produce
confers on all except the least favoured portions." Again — " Agri-
cultural productions are not the only commodities which have
several different costs of production at once, and which in consequence
of that difference, and in proportion to it, afford a Rent"
Thus Mill distinctly makes differences of Cost of Production the
necessary condition of Rent arising. We shall see afterwards, how-
ever, that he is quite inconsistent with himself as to the regulating
law of price, and that in some passages he leans to Ricardo,
and in others to Anderson.
Carey's Theory of Rent
This Theory of Rent was vaunted as a most wonderful discovery
soon after it was published. But it met with a stout antagonist
in Carey, the American Economist. In his first works he dissented
from the Theory, but he admitted men began by cultivating the best
land first Afterwards, however, he took up a new position
altogether. He maintains that the first settlers in a country always
begin by cultivating the inferior soils. He says that the best soils
are always covered with immense trees that they cannot fell, or they
are swamps that they cannot drain. These, he says, cannot be
brought into cultivation till men and Capital increase. But there
are always spots of an inferior degree of fertility, on the hill side for
instance, where the thin soil has prevented the growth of trees and
shrubs, which are always brought into cultivation first, because they
afford the readiest return for Labour.
Carey then attacks the Ricardo Theory of Rent, and says: —
" Nearly 40 years have elapsed since Mr. Ricardo communicated to
the world his discovery of the nature and causes of Rent, and the
law of its progress. The work by means of which it was first made
known has since been the text work of that portion of the English
community who style themselves, par excellence, political economists,
and anything short of absolute faith in its contents is regarded as
heresy, worthy of excommunication, or as evidence of an incapacity
to comprehend them, worthy only of contempt. Nevertheless,
imitating in this the action of the followers of Mahomet, in regard to
the Koran, the professors, one and all, who have undertaken to
teach this doctrine, insist upon construing it after their own fashion,
and modifying it to suit their own views and the apparent necessities
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K] Rent 581
of the case ; the consequence of which is, that the inquirer is at a
loss to determine what it is that he is required to believe. Having
studied carefully the works of the most eminent of the recent writers
on the subject, and having found no two of them to agree, he turns
in despair to Mr. Ricardo himself, and there he finds in the celebra-
ted chapter on Rent, contradictions that cannot be reconciled, and a
series of complications such as never before, we believe, was found
in the same number of lines. The more he studies, the more he is
puzzled, and the less difficulty does he find in accounting for the
variety of doctrines taught by men who profess to belong to the
same school, and who all agree, if in little else, in regarding the new
theory of Rent as the great discovery of the age
" At first sight, it looks to be exceedingly simple. Rent is said to
be paid for land of the first quality, yielding one hundred quarters in
return to a given quantity of labour, when it becomes necessary, with
the increase of population, to cultivate land of the second quality,
capable of yielding but 90 quarters in return to the same quantity of
labour ; and the amount of Rent then paid for No. 1 is equal to the
difference between their respective products. No proposition could
be calculated to command more universal assent. Every man who
hears it sees around him land that pays rent. He sees that that
which yields forty bushels to the acre pays more rent than that
which yields but thirty, and that the difference is nearly equal to the
difference of product. He becomes at once a disciple of Mr.
Ricardo, admitting that the reason why prices are paid for the use
of land is that soils are different in their qualities, when he would at
the same moment, regard it as in the highest degree absurd, if any one
were to undertake to prove that prices were paid for oxen because one ox
is heavier than another; that rents are paid for houses because some
will accommodate twenty persons and others only ten ; or that ail ships
command freights because some ships differ from others in their
capacity / "
"It will be perceived that the whole system is based upon the
assertion of the existence of a single fact, viz., that in the commence-
ment of cultivation, when population is small, and land consequently
abundant, the soils capable of yielding the largest return to any
given quantity of labour alone are cultivated. The fact exists, or it
does not If it has no existence, the system falls to the ground.
That it does not exist; that it never has existed in any country
whatsoever; and that it is contrary to the nature of things that
it should have existed, or can exist, we propose now to show."
This, then, is the main purpose of his work. Carey, from a
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582 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
general survey of different countries, maintains that men always
have, and necessarily must have, commenced cultivation on inferior
soils, and when men and capital increased have then progressed to
bring the best soils into cultivation. The reason for this general
and sweeping conclusion is, as above indicated, because the best and
most fertile lands are always covered with forest or swamp, and the
inferior lands free from them. Hence settlers begin with those lands
most easily attainable. The universality of this law Carey attempts
to prove. This, then, is the basis of his theory of Rent, and as seen
above it is in diametrical opposition to that of Ricardo. He also
maintains that as men and capital increase, and better lands are
brought into cultivation, Rents rise, and population becomes better
off.
Carey maintains the necessary universality of this course, and he
has taken a wide survey of the history of nations in different ages,
in all countries of the world, to prove its truth.
Now Carey has undoubtedly so far succeeded as this. He has
certainly completely overthrown the basis of Ricardo's Theory of
Rent, which depends on the universality of men occupying the best
land first It is indubitably true than in a great many cases men do
begin with the light middling soils first And this is all that is
required by the laws of Inductive Logic. But to assert as a neces-
sary, invariable, and universal law, that men do and must in all
cases begin by cultivating the inferior soils is preposterous. In
multitudes of cases men did begin cultivation on the best soils. It
has often been remarked what a keen eye for good land the monks
had. In multitudes of cases the monasteries will be found placed
in the centre of the richest and best lands.
Now if there are abundance of cases, as there undoubtedly are,
in which men began by cultivating the best lands, that is fatal to the
generality of Carey's theory, just as the instances which he has
adduced of men beginning on the light middling lands are fatal to
Ricardo's theory. Each of them has perilled his theory on the
universality of a particular course of proceeding.
From every general theory all accidental and particular circum-
stances must be eliminated. The particular state of the case as
asserted by Ricardo is sometimes true, and the particular state of the
case as asserted by Carey is also sometimes true ; and therefore it is
clear that neither is true as a general theory. A true general theory
must include them both.
Years ago, when we read Ricardo's Theory of Rent for the first
time, we wrote — " Another most abundant source of error is, when
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R.] Rent 583
two phenomena are related to each other, to mistake the cause for
the effect. No more striking instance of this can be selected than
the Theory of Rent propounded by Mr. Ricardo. In a few words,
Mr. Ricardo's axiom is that the expense of raising corn on the
worst land in cultivation will determine the average price of wheat,
and afford and measure the rent of lands of a superior quality ....
Notwithstanding these authorities, we have no hesitation whatever in
saying that the Ricardo Theory of Rent is a mere delusion ; and
that it is fundamentally erroneous, inasmuch as it inverts the relation
of cause and effect. From an intimate knowledge and observation
of the action of prices in an agricultural district, and the views of
farmers in taking farms, we have no hesitation in saying that it is not
the cost of cultivating the worst lands which determines price, but
the precise reverse, and that it is the average value or price of corn
which determines the worst quality, and most ill-situated land that can
be cultivated with a profit^ and also decides whether there can be any
Rent for it ... It is evident that this is no mere piece of vain
logomachy, but is the very root of the matter ; we have no hesita-
tion in saying that Ricardo has inverted cause and effect, and that
the whole Theory of Rent based upon this erroneous axiom is a
delusion and a chimera, and that any course of action based upon
so fallacious an axiom would infallibly lead to results precisely the
reverse of what was intended and expected."
This we wrote from our own practical knowledge of the subject.
Since that work was published, we have found that J. B. Say has
urged exactly the same objection against Ricardo's Theory of Rent.
Say says — " We shall see further that it is the same false conception
of the origin of value which is the basis of Ricardo's Theory of
Rent. He pretends that it is the cost which is obliged to be made
to cultivate the worst lands which makes a rent to be paid for the
better ones, whereas it is the wants of society which give rise to the
demand for agricultural products, and raises the price of them
sufficiently high for the farmer to make a profit to pay the owner of
the land for the right of cultivating it."
And this view, which is exactly the same as ours, he enforces
further on.
So also Dr. Chalmers points out exactly the same fallacy. " It is
a signal error in a recent Theory of Rent that the difference of
quality in soils is the efficient cause of it. . . . In affirming that it is
the existence of this inferior land which originates the Rent, there is
a total misapprehension of what may be termed the real Dynamics
of the subject." And he says — " The error of the Ricardo system
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584 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
of Political Economy on the subject of rent has been well charac-
terised by CoL T. Perronet Thompson as the fallacy of inversion.
It confounds the effect with the cause. It is not because of the
existence of inferior soils that the superior pay a rent, but it is
because the superior pay a rent that the inferior are taken into
occupation."
Lastly, we may cite the opinion of the learned Judge, Mr. Justice
Byles, who wrote to us — " I observe that in your economical writings
you have assailed Ricardo's Theory of Rent. Fifty years ago I not
only read Ricardo's book, but actually abridged it. Subsequent
reflection and observation have convinced me that that theory is
unsound, as indeed is most of his book." We are happy to cite
these testimonies, all agreeing with our judgment
We have seen that Anderson and Ricardo, with his followers
McCulloch and Mill, all make Rent to arise from differences in the
returns to Capital, either from difference of fertility, situation, or
differences of Capital applied to the same soil. And unless there
were these differences of returns, it is manifest from the extracts
given from these writers, that, according to their theory, there could
be no such thing as Rent. Now, let us suppose some vast plains of
illimitable extent on the earth's surface; all of uniform fertility;
with markets thickly distributed over them so that their situation is
uniform ; and also equal amounts of Capital expended on the soil ;
such as the plains of Bengal, or Lombardy, or such as the plains of
South America along the Amazons might be. Now, in such a
country as this, could not there be such a thing as Rent ? Accord-
ing to the doctrine of Ricardo, McCulloch, and Mill, there could
not be such a thing as Rent in such a country ! The very statement
of such doctrine is enough to call forth the amazement and ridicule
of any practical man of business.
The Theory of Rent
We have now to develop the Theory of Rent which is inde-
pendent of differences of fertility, or differences of situation, or of
differences of return to Capital.
First : What is the first thing necessary in order that Rent should
arise?
It is that the relation of Landlord and Tenant should exist : Rent
is the sum paid by one person to another for the use of land ; hence,
unless the land is owned by one person and let to another, there
can be no such thing as Rent
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R.] Rent
Secondly: From what does the possibility of Rent being paid
arise?
It arises from this, that a few persons, especially with the assist-
ance of horses, cattle, and agricultural implements, can raise from
the earth a very much larger amount of produce than is necessary
for their own subsistence.
Thirdly: Let us consider when, or under what circumstances,
Rent will arise.
Let us suppose that there is a large tract of country belonging to
a landlord, either the State, or a private person, and comprising
many different kinds of soil of varying fertility.
Now, suppose that any portion of this soil is parcelled out among
families in such a way that each family has got only just exactly
enough for its own subsistence. Those placed on the better lands
will of course require a smaller amount of land than those placed on
inferior lands.
Now, if the land were parcelled out in this way, it is manifest
that these families could pay no Rent for the land, because they
have no surplus produce to pay as Rent.
Again, let us suppose the same land parcelled out among a
number of families, each with a very much larger portion of land in
their possession than is necessary for their subsistence. Then, as
•each family would be able to maintain itself entirely on its own land,
it is evident they could pay no Rent, as there would be nobody to
purchase any produce they might raise above their own wants.
(Supposing that they did not export it to foreign markets.)
Supposing, while the land is parcelled out in this way, a town
springs up. Then, of course, the inhabitants of the town cannot
raise food for themselves, and the tenants in the country would find
it profitable to grow food to sell to the dwellers in the town.
Of course, when the town was very small the demand would be
very small, and therefore the price low ; and therefore it would only
pay to bring in com from the land nearest the town. But as the
numbers in the town increased, the demand would increase : the price
•of the corn would increase : the Rent of the land nearest the town
would increase : and then it would pay to bring com from the second
zone of land As the town continued to increase, the demand
would still more increase : the price would go higher still : the Rent
in the first and second zones would increase : and then it would pay
to bring the com from the third zone, and so on.
It is also clear that if there were only one centre of population,
the price of the com arising from the demand would indicate the
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586 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
greatest cost that could be incurred in bringing the corn to market.
And as this cost increased, there would be a zone from which it
would just pay with ordinary profits to bring the corn to market, but
which could pay no Rent.
Now Ricardo says that it is the cost of producing the corn from
this outmost zone which regulates the price of all the corn sold in
the market.
We say it is manifestly exactly the reverse. It is the price of the
corn in the market which indicates the position of this zone.
Ricardo says — "When in the progress of society land of the
second degree of fertility is taken into cultivation, Rent immediately
commences on that of the first quality."
We say it is exactly the reverse, and that it is— When Rent
commences on land of the first degree, land of the second degree
will be taken into cultivation.
Ricardo says — "When land of the third quality is taken into
cultivation, Rent immediately commences on the second At the
same time the Rent of the first quality will rise."
We say it is exactly the reverse, and that it is — When in the
progress of society the price of corn rises, the Rents on the first and
second qualities will rise, and then the third quality will be taken
into cultivation.
Ricardo says — "When land of an inferior quality is taken into
cultivation, the exchangeable value of raw produce will rise, because
more labour is required to produce it"
We say that the sentence should have been written thus — "When
the exchangeable value of raw produce rises, land of an inferior
quality will be taken into cultivation, because more labour may be
profitably employed to produce it."
Ricardo says — " The value of corn is regulated by the Quantity of
Labour bestowed on its production, or that quality of land, or with
that portion of capital, which pays no Rent"
We say it is exactly the reverse, and that — The value of corn
indicates the worst quality of land upon which labour may be
bestowed without paying Rent.
Ricardo says — "That corn which is produced by the greatest
quantity of labour is the regulator of the price of corn."
We say it is exactly the reverse, and — That the price of corn
indicates the greatest cost which will be employed in producing
corn.
Now we have supposed only one centre of town population : and
under such circumstances Rents would no doubt progressively
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R] Rent 587
diminish till they vanished. But what need of supposing only one
centre of town population? Let us suppose that there are any
number of towns and markets spread all over the country. Then
of course these numerous towns will tend to equalise Rents all over
the country ; and like as in Lombardy, we may suppose them so
nearly equally spread over the country that differences of situation
are practically annihilated. We may also suppose that equal portions
of Capital have been applied to the land : so that the circumstances
of an indefinite extent of country are absolutely equal. Now as
long as the circumstances of the different parts of the country are
different, Ricardo, McCulloch, and Mill allow that Rents may exist ;
but as soon as the circumstances are absolutely equal all over the
country— the possibility of there being such a thing as Rent ceases
to exist ! !
Now such is the logical conclusion of the Ricardo Theory of
Rent ! and we simply ask, can such a doctrine be received by any
sane man ?
We thus, by this means, eliminate differences of fertility, situation,
or application of Capital, from the Theory of Rent
What, then, are the circumstances under which Rent arises?
They are these : —
1. That the land must belong to a landlord, and be let to a
tenant
2. That the tenant shall have in his possession a larger amount of
land than is necessary for his own maintenance.
3. That the population in some parts of the country be collected
in such dense masses, that they cannot grow corn for their own sub-
sistence on the land they occupy.
4. That the population in other parts of the country be scattered
so widely, that they cannot consume the produce of the soil, but
they may sell some of it to the town population.
Under such circumstances the tenants in the country can give
their landlords a share of the profits made by selling the corn to the
townspeople, and that share is called Rent
The Payment of Rent does Not influence the Price of Corn.
Moreover, the payment of Rent has no influence on the price of
corn, because it is not part of the Cost of Production, but it is a
Share of the Profits.
The proof of this will be an excellent example of the truth of the
General Equation of Economics we established elsewhere (Value).
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588 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. li-
lt will also well exemplify a principle of great importance in the
Theory of Taxation.
In many foreign towns an octroi, or custom house, is placed at the
gates, at which duties are levied on all articles of food brought into
the town.
Now suppose A keeps a farm outside the town, and brings his
produce to the market He is charged an octroi duty at the gates.
This duty is part of the Cost of Production, i.e. of placing the pro-
duce in the market for sale. Hence he will add the duty to the
price of the article, and the townsmen must pay it Hence, of
course, a tax on the product will raise its price.
Now if A is the possessor of the farm by himself, he will reap all
the profits made by it If he has a partner B, the same quantity of
produce is brought into the market ; but A and B will share the
profits between them. A, no doubt, will have a less profit than if
he was sole owner of the farm. But it is quite evident that because
A has a partner B, and must share the profits with him, that can
have no effect on the price of the produce. For this reason — the
same Quantity is raised from the farm, and offered in the market,
and there is the same Demand for it. Hence it is clear that a tax
on the product raises the price of the product, but a share of the profits
will not
Now suppose A and B are landlord and tenant. Then the
produce is raised, and brought to market ; and the tenant pays the
landlord a stipulated share of the profits. That cannot have any
effect on the price of the produce, because it neither alters the
Demand nor the Supply. Hence the price of corn cannot be
affected, whether a single person produces it, or whether two do so
in partnership. That is to say, it has no effect on the price of corn,
whether one person produces it, or whether two produce in partner-
ship. Hence, in strict accordance with the theories of Anderson
and Ricardo, it is perfectly proved that if the landlords were to fore-
go their Rents, it would have no effect on the price of corn, but
the price would simply go into the pockets of the farmers.
Error of Ricardo on Tithes.
It is very strange that Ricardo, who agreed that Rent does not
influence the price of corn, maintains that Tithes do. He says —
" Tithes are a tax on the gross produce of the land, and like taxes
on raw produce, fall wholly on the consumer." Now it is quite
manifest that Tithes are a share of the produce, just as Rent is. If
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R.] Rent 589
a farmer has to pay Tithes as well as Rent, it is quite clear that the
produce of the farm is divided into three parts instead of two. But
still the same Supply is brought to market, and there is the same
Demand for it. Therefore its Price cannot be altered. The pro-
duce is shared between the Landlord, the Tenant, and the Parson,
but that can have no effect on Price. Therefore the distinction
made by Ricardo between Rent and Tithes is entirely erroneous.
The distinction between a Tax on the Produce and a Share of the
Produce, or the Profits, will be found to be of the greatest impor-
tance in the Theory of Taxation.
Self- Contradiction of Ricardo on Rent
The slightest consideration will show that Rent and Tithes stand
exactly on the same footing, and are exactly of the same nature.
Rent is the share of the Produce which is given to the Landlord :
Tithes are. the share of the Produce which is given to the Parson.
The whole Produce is divided into three parts; but as this Division
of the Produce neither alters the Quantity brought into the market,
that is, the Supply, nor the Demand, it is evident that neither of
them alters Price. They in no way add to the Price of the Produce;
nor would the Produce be any cheaper if Rent and Tithes were
abolished. The only thing would be that the whole Profits would
go to one person instead of to three.
Ricardo, however, considers Tithes to be a tax on the gross
produce of the land, and, like taxes on the raw produce, fall wholly
on the Consumer, and he says they raise the Price of the Produce.
Ricardo's doctrine on Tithes therefore is quite contradictory to
his doctrine on Rent. But he equally contradicts himself on Rent.
For he says —
" Rent, then, it appears, always falls on the Consumer, and never
on the Farmer."
"The Farmer, then, although he pays no part of his landlord's
Rent, that being always regulated by the Price of the Produce, and
invariably falling on the Consumer"
" It must be admitted, then, that M. Sismondi and Mr. Buchanan,
for both their opinions are substantially the same, were correct when
they considered Rent as a Value purely nominal, and as forming no
addition to the national wealth, but merely as a transfer of Value,
advantageous only to the landlords, and proportionably injurious to
the consumer?
Now, when Ricardo in these passages says that Rent "falls on
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590 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
the Consumer," and is " injurious to the Consumer," what can he
mean except that the payment of Rent raises the Price of the
produce to the Consumer? Thus he exactly contradicts his
previous Theory. Thus he is shown to be in plain contradiction to
himself on the only part of his Theory which is of any practical
utility.
Self- Contradiction of Mill on Rent.
The absurdities and self-contradictions of the Ricardo Theory of
Rent are strikingly exhibited in Mill.
He says — "Agricultural productions are not the only commodities
which have several different Costs of Production at once, and which in
consequence of that difference, and in proportion to it, afford a Rent
Mines are also an instance. Almost all kinds of raw material
extracted from the interior of the earth — metals, coals, precious
stones, &c. — are obtained from mines differing considerably in
fertility ; that is, yielding very different quantities of the product to
the same quantity of Labour and Capital"
Now let us observe the necessary consequences of such doctrines.
If the rent of mines arises solely from differences in the fertility of
mines, and is only paid in consequence of that difference, it manifestly
follows that if all the mines were of equal fertility there could be no
such thing as Rent, a doctrine too absurd to require a moment's
refutation. It would manifestly be just as absurd to say that Rent
is paid for houses because houses are of different sizes, and that if
all the houses in a great city, like London or Paris, were of the
same size there could not be any such thing as Rent; or that
Freights are paid for ships because ships are of different sizes, and
that if all ships were of the same size, there could be no such thing
as freights ; or that wages or salaries are paid to men because men
differ in capacity, and that if all men were of equal capacity there
could be no such thing as wages or salary ; and so on in innumerable
similar cases ; in short, if the Ricardo-Mill theory be true, prices are
only paid for anything because things differ in quality or degree.
If the Ricardo-Mill Theory be true, that Rent only arises from
differences of fertility between different Lands, Mines, or Houses, it
would follow that if there were only a single piece of Land, or
Mine, or House, no Rent could be paid for it ! Nor is this by any
means an imaginary case. There is but one mine of Plumbago in
England, and according to the doctrine of Ricardo and Mill no
Rent can be paid for it ; a doctrine at which the owner of the mine
would doubtless smile. Nor could any Rent be paid for the quarries
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of Paros, Carrara, or Pentelicus ; a doctrine so manifestly absurd as
to require no refutation.
But, in fact, Mill himself has entirely overthrown this Theory of
Rent
He says — "Whatever be the causes, it is a fact that mines of
different degrees of richness are in operation ; and since the Value
of the produce must be proportional to the Cost of Production at
the worst mine (fertility and situation taken together), it is more
than proportional to that of the best. All mines superior in produce
to the worst actually worked will yield, therefore, a Rent equal to the
excess. They may yield more, and the worst mine may itself yield a
Rent?
So also he says — " If the whole land of a country were required
for cultivation, all of it might yield a Rent"
Now if this be true, as it undoubtedly is, what becomes of the
doctrine that Lands, and Mines, and all other things only yield a
Rent in consequence of their being of different degrees of fertility ;
and that Rent is the excess of the more fertile mines or lands above
the least fertile one ?
If all Lands and Mines can pay Rent, how can Rent be " the
difference between the unequal returns to different parts of the
Capital employed on the soil " : or " the price of the privilege which
the inequality of the returns to different portions of agricultural
produce confers on ail except the least favoured portion f"
Thus in one place he defines Rent to be the excess of the returns
of all portions above the worst: thereby expressly excluding the
worst portion from the capacity of paying Rent; and then he says
in other places that all portions, even the worst, may pay Rent !
Can anything be more contradictory or absurd ?
It is obvious from these passages of Mill that he perceives that
the Value of the produce is due to the Intensity of Demand and
the Limitation of the Supply \ and that the difference of degrees of
fertility in the mines is a mere accident If all Lands and Mines
yield a Rent, how can it be essential to Rent that they should differ
in fertility? As M. H. Passy truly observes, this is to take the
circumstances which make a difference in the Rate of Rent for
the Cause which produces Rent. In all these cases differences of
fertility are the mere Accident of Rent, and not its Essence. It
needs no ghost to tell us that Lands and Mines which possess
superior advantages of fertility and situation will pay a higher Rent
than inferior ones.
The capability of Rent being paid for a farm purely depends
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592 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
upon the question whether the Value of the produce of the farm
leaves sufficient Profits after defraying the Cost of Production,
farmer's necessary profits, &c, to pay Rent. The capacity of a
Farm to pay Rent depends purely on its own particular circum-
stances, and has nothing to do with the consideration whether
other farms are more or less fertile than itself. And the Value of
the produce depends purely on the Intensity of Demand and the
Limitation of the Supply of the produce in the market ; and the
whole question is thus brought under the dominion of the General
Equation of Economics.
It has already been shown that Anderson's Theory of Rent is
radically different from Ricardo's : though they are often thought
to be the same. Anderson makes the Value of corn to spring from
the Demand, and he shows that it is the Price of Corn which
indicates the worst land which can be brought into cultivation.
Ricardo makes the increase of Price to proceed from the
increased Labour in obtaining the corn ; and it is quite clear that
Ricardo's doctrine is, that bringing worse lands into cultivation must
precede, and is the cause of, the increase of Price ; and this is the
sense which both his opponents, Say, Chalmers, Thompson, and
ourselves, as well as his admirer, McCulloch, attribute to him.
But Mill, in accordance with Anderson, says — "The higher the
market value of produce, the lower are the soils to which cultivation
can descend, consistently with affording to the Capital employed the
ordinary Rate of Profit."
Now this is no doubt true ; but it is diametrically the reverse of
Ricardo's Theory of Rent, which Mill declares to be the pons
asinorum of Economics.
The only case in which Ricardo's Theory would have a semblance
of truth would be this, where a country had a regularly decreasing
gradation of lands, stretching out to an unlimited distance : then in
such a case the Rent which might be paid for the superior farms
would be indicated by the difference in the Value of their produce
and the Value of the produce of the last quantity of land in cultiva-
tion. But then it is a pure accident that there should be such an
unlimited series. For the Ricardo Theory to be true it would
necessarily require that there should actually be such a series.
On the Rent of Shops.
We thus see that the doctrine first positively announced by
Anderson, and adopted by all Economists since, that Rent does
not influence the price of agricultural products, such as com, is
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r.] Rent 593
true Such a product is brought into a common market which no
single producer can influence, and therefore he must conform
himself to its conditions. A certain general price is necessary to
attract a certain supply ; and the differences in the cost of produc-
tion of each particular parcel can have no influence on its price.
The supply will be produced so long as its value affords the cost of
labour and ordinary profits. No one created the land itself, and
therefore remuneration for the use of it is not part of the necessary
cost of production : and if any particular parcel of its produce will
not afford both ordinary profits and Rent, Rent, of course, will
vanish first The producers of corn are far too numerous to com-
bine to limit the supply. For a considerable time it was attempted
to limit the supply of foreign corn by prohibitive or protective
legislation, but all such laws have been for ever rendered impossible
in this country ; and consequently corn will come in from foreign
countries so long as the value of it here will yield the ordinary
profits of trade.
But where the producers are fewer in number the case is different
The owners of mines of different sorts are comparatively few, and
they can without any great difficulty come to an agreement to limit
the supply. It has been alleged that the owners of coal mines have
on several occasions agreed to limit the supply in order to maintain
it at a certain level in order to preserve their rents ; though the same
rule would evidently apply to minerals as to corn, if the producers
were too numerous to combine. Minerals of all sorts are the free gift
of nature, and not the creation of man, and therefore a remunera-
tion for them is not a part of the necessary cost of production:
and if there were no arbitrary limitation of supply they would
continue to be produced so long as the producers obtained ordinary
profits.
But the case is different with shops. In these Rent does un-
doubtedly enter into price, because in such cases it is part of the
necessary cost of production. No man created the land or the
minerals ; but shops are not the gift of Nature. They are created
by the expenditure of capital, which is part of the necessary cost of
production, and it must be replaced in the price of the articles.
Moreover, each shop is a little market in itself, over which the
producer has complete command, only controlled by other pro-
ducers who are all in a similar position. A retail shopkeeper buys
his goods at a certain price from the wholesale dealer, and he has
a certain price to pay for rent ; or if he built the shop himself he
must have laid out a certain capital on it, and must have a certain
2 Q
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S94 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
interest on that expenditure. He must also provide for his own
maintenance. He expects to have a certain amount of custom ; he
therefore fixes such a price upon his articles as he estimates will
provide for all these things. If he cannot obtain these returns he
must give up his business. All his competitors are in exactly the
same condition, and thus the producers have the command of the
market The prices which each may fix are only controlled by
what he thinks his customers will give, and his fellow-competitors
will enforce as well as himself. None of these competitors, how-
ever, can afford to sell below that amount any more than he can ;
consequently, in such cases rent is a part of the necessary cost of
production, as being only the interest on capital expended : and
production must cease unless such interest is afforded : and there-
fore in such cases it necessarily and justly forms a part of price.
It is easily seen that this is true by any one who considers the
difference between the prices of fish, fruit, and vegetables as sold in
shops where the shop is the fixed capital, and the same articles sold
by costermongers in the street, whose only fixed capital is a barrow.
Conclusion of the Ricardo Theory of Rent.
Although we have arrived at exactly the same practical result as
Ricardo, yet this is no immaterial dispute about words ; it is not
mere logomachy; but it is a fundamental difference of principle
between two distinct systems of Economics. Ricardo has plainly
inverted cause and effect His views and principles are as entirely
fallacious as if he had composed a treatise on heat, and laid it down
as a fundamental principle that it is the rise of the mercury in the
thermometer that regulates the heat of the atmosphere, or that the
rise of the mercury in the barometer causes fine weather. And
those who admire Ricardo's principles ought in consistency to main-
tain the two latter propositions. The schoolboy who screwed up
his barometer to " Set fair," to ensure fine weather for his holiday,
was a true disciple of Ricardo.
It is so extremely important to understand the nature of the
fallacy which runs through the whole of the Ricardian system, that
we may give another illustration. It is well known that the cultiva-
tion of certain agricultural products, and the climate they can
flourish in, are intimately connected. At certain points the cultiva-
tion of maize, the vine, olives, the palm, ceases, and it is possible
to ascertain by experience the average temperature of the country in
which these things occur. Now, reasoning exactly as Ricardo does,
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we ought to say that the boundaries of the cultivation of these pro-
ducts regulate the climate of that place; when it is manifestly the
reverse, it is the climate that regulates their production. The
cultivation of a certain vegetable may indicate the climate, but it
does not regulate it, any more than the speed of the paddle-wheels
regulates the motion of the engines. The whole of Ricardofe
palpable fallacy is based upon a misconception of the meaning of
to regulate.
Or again, there is a certain kind of letter-weight which indicates
the weight of the letter by raising a series of weights in succession ;
now it is quite clear that it is not the last weight raised which
regulates the weight of the letter; but the weight of the letter
which regulates which is the last weight which will be raised.
Exactly in the same way, it is not the cost of raising corn on the
worst land which regulates the Price of corn ; but it is the Price of
corn which regulates the cost which can be afforded for it, and
which indicates the worst land which can be cultivated; and the
Price of corn is exclusively governed by the great Law of Supply
and Demand.
We have now shown the entire fallacy of the Ricardo Theory
of Rent : and brought the class of commodities it relates to under
the dominion of the General Equation of Economics. That the
Ricardo Theory should be true was contrary to the whole analogy of
Physical Science. But the Principle of the Continuity of Science
is completely vindicated, and there is seen the beautiful conformity
between the Principles of Natural Philosophy and Reality, and a
great triumph for the prophetic genius of Bacon.
Smith on Rents in Shetland.
Smith notices the high rent paid for land in some parts of Shet-
land— " The sea in the neighbourhood of Shetland is more than
commonly abundant in fish, which make a great part of the
subsistence of their inhabitants. But in order to profit by the
produce of the water they must have a habitation upon the land.
The rent of the land is in proportion, not to what the farmer can
make by the land, but to what he can make both by the land and
the water. It is partly paid in sea-fish ; and one of the very few
instances in which rent makes a part of the price of that commodity
is to be found in that country."
It is quite clear that it is exactly the reverse, and that rents in
.Shetland are paid out of the bountiful supply offish. It is surprising
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S96 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
s —
that Smith did not see that fishermen everywhere else must
have a dwelling on land, as well as in Shetland, for which they must
pay rent And rent must bear the same relation to price every-
where else as it does in Shetland. Why should rent form a part of
the price of fish in Shetland and not elsewhere ? How is it possible
that the Laws of Value can be fundamentally different in Shetland
to all the rest of the world ? This is just one of those examples
which has brought the Science of Economics into such disrepute,
because Economists, from want of a scientific education, make the
whole subject a mass of contradictions and peculiarities, without
any great fundamental principles. But the fault is evidently not in
the subject, but in the manner of treating it.
A dwelling near the sea is necessary for the fishermen. The
sea is part of their domain out of which they make their profits ;
and it is the abundance of the fish which enables them to pay
a high rent for the land. And the rent no more enters into the
price of the fish than the rent of corn land enters into the price
of corn.
Rent in this case, as in all other cases of trading rents, arises out
of the competition for a position by means of which profits may
be made.
De Fontenay on Rent
A French writer, M. de Fontenay, has seen this truth very clearly.
He says: "It may be as well to say something here of one
of the most striking instances of the advantages of position. I
mean the high price paid for buying or hiring spaces in a great city.
Some Economists have thought they see in that the rent of land :
they have let themselves be duped by a word, as Montaigne
would say. To think that it is really for a piece of land that one pays
in Paris two or three hundred francs the metre, is as if one were to
think that in buying the number of a hackney coach it is for
three yellow numbers that he pays six to eight thousand francs, and
that when a notary sells his practice, it is a double knob of gilt
copper, twenty paper cases or so, five or six shabby tables, and
a bad earthenware stove, that he sells for 500,000 francs. The
space of ground, like the number, the practice, is only a repre-
sentative sign of the acquired rights, a title to advantages and profits
which may be discounted. What one pays for in the price of
the space of ground is a share in the enjoyment of innumerable
improvements of an advanced civilisation : it is an immense
opportunity to exert onself and to shine, to know and to be known.
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It is a powerful agglomeration of rich consumers if one is a
producer; of producers and products of all kinds if one is more
especially a consumer. It is a multitude of free enjoyments,
the pavement, the trottoirsy gas, water, fifes, theatres, palaces,
walks, museums, shops, libraries, marts of all kinds of wealth,
material and intellectual. The inhabitant of Paris who gives up to
a stranger his share in these advantages has the perfect right to sell
them to him at a good price. For it is he, or they whose right
he represents, the citizens of a great city, who have gradually made
it what it is. It is they who, by their labours, their sacrifices, their
struggles of every kind, by their gold or by their blood, have
acquired and paid for these rights, this security, this progress,
this public luxury, these works of general utility, these refinements
of civilisation, this immense development of intellectual and
material life."
And De Fontenay most justly says in other parts of the same
work — " Wherever there is a revenue you perceive capital " — " The
theory of revenue must be the same for all classes of human
production.
"Unfortunately this simple and sensible idea has been falsified by
the spirit of system. Ask an Economist who knows the masters by
heart what revenue is ; and he will answer : that industrial revenues,
the net profits of the forge, of manufactures, of banking and
commerce, &c, are the profits of capital; but that the income from
land — the net profit of the farm or the vineyard — is quite another
thing; that that is the price of a monopoly, a payment for the
productive powers of the earth, a continued increase of the price of
products, of interests opposed to the general interest; in short,
of fundamental laws and essential phenomena so radically different
to the laws and phenomena of production generally that it has been
necessary to make a separate division in the Science, and an
entirely exceptional theory for the income from land; or, as it
is called, the rent of land.
" We propose here to abolish these false distinctions, incompatible
with the character of harmony and simplicity which the laws of
Economics ought to have, and to prove that there is one, and only
one, law of Value, Income, and Capital under all its forms."
Again — "It is known that Economists who have attributed one
part of the value of products to the action of natural agents have
confined the application of their theory to a single class of
phenomena — that of the appropriation and cultivation of the soil
"It is not surprising that the human mind thus proceeds by
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598 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
particular cases. It is quite natural that the analysis of production
should begin by the first of human products.
" Of all the instruments of labour, in fact, the most indispensable,
the most universally and the earliest employed, and consequently the
most obvious, is unquestionably that most complicated instrument
called the earth. Divided in its -extent, varying in its powers, and its
aptitudes so rigorously limited, so unequally divided among nations,
families, and persons, that the possession or the desire for a greater
part has in all ages been the principal object of wars and human
discord, the earth everywhere, and at all times, has presented the
phenomenon of profit under its most visible — and I will say also its
most obnoxious — form; because from the earliest antiquity entire
castes have lived upon the rent of land, freed from all labour by this
excess of the labour of their fellow-men. Not only is agricultural
labour the most ancient and the most important of all, but among
many people it has been, and still is among some, the only industry,
properly speaking. Not only is landed property the most visible
form of capital, but it has long been, and still is in backward
countries, the only capital — including, of course, landed capital,
cattle capital, and slave capital, which are attached to it. The
elevation of other branches of human industry to the rank of
property is a fact so recent in the history of the world, that it is
quite natural that the property and income of land have been
studied, regulated by legislators, discussed by philosophers and
statesmen, long before any other form of property and income.
" When Economic Science was founded, it was therefore to
agriculture and extractive production that it first gave its attention.
When it entered upon a wrong path in attributing production and
value to Nature, all the errors and dangers of this system fell
exclusively with all their weight on the property in land. It is some-
what strange, but if this error had been generalised it would perhaps
have been less fatal and less tenacious : applied only to a particular
case, as it has been, it has placed property in land in an exceptional
and truly proscribed position. . . .
"That truly is an unpleasant position for the possessors of the
soil, and it seems difficult from such premises to draw conclusions
favourable to property in land. In fact, it is somewhat badly treated
by this school. It is, according to J. B. Say, the least reputable of
all property — in fact, it has for its origin conquest, a purely conven-
tional right — it is a tolerated monoply — a legal fiction, according
to J. Gamier — a restriction on the laws of God, according to Scrope
— a usurped privilege, according to J. B. Say — its useful purpose is
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limited, according to Senior, to stretching out its hand to. receive thei
offerings of the community — the class of proprietors' profits at the
expense of the others, according to Buchanan — its interests are
constantly opposed to those of the rest of Society, according to
Ricardo — &c. &c. As for the rent of land, it seems that the delenda-
Carthago has been pronounced against it: one of the wittiest
disciples of Ricardo calls it the product of a series of outrages
against property from the earliest antiquity : many Economists
flatter themselves that they can make it disappear by means of
Free Trade : — Ricardo, Mill, &c, to make sure of this, have pro-
posed to confiscate it legally by taxation : one of our official
Economists has even written, 'We are coming to the time when
all proprietors will be forced to cultivate or to sell, if they wish
to have a revenue.'"
Again — " I certainly need not remark how nearly the passages I
have just quoted approach the most aggressive eccentricities of
Socialism. The difference here between the mortal enemy of
property and its pretended defenders is, that they treat it as a
parasite, a usurper, and a mendicant, while he bluntly calls if
robbery — that M. Proudhon wishes to make all revenue disappear,,
and the others only suppress rent, which is, in their definition, only
a part of revenue.
"Undoubtedly, then, this doctrine openly attacks property in-
land. Will the abolition stop there? The Economists of. this
school have thought that in limiting the application of their
principle to one case they could say to logic — You shall not go
further than we do. But logic laughs at their impotent authority ;
and it is easy to see that all property, both movable and immovable,
is brought into question by the same attack.
"Since, then, in fact, it is necessary to distinguish two indepen-
dent agents in production, man and Nature, two associates of whom
one appropriates the wages of the other ; instead of recognising only
one agent, one voluntary and responsible active power — man ; and
an instrument inert, passive, indifferent to the good or evil of the
result, and consequently unpaid — Nature. Immediately that the
merit and the value of the work is attributed to the means of action,
and not to the actual cause — to the force which obeys, and not to
the will which commands — to unconscious matter, and not to the
intelligence which foresees and directs ; this principle, good or bad,
must be followed out to the end. We must see in all classes of pro-
duction that which emanates from the thinking producer, and that
which is the work of the unintelligent producer — in short, we must
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600 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
distinguish in the collective result the share of man and the share
of the natural agent For it is not in agriculture only that these
natural agents appear : they most clearly act everywhere along with
man, because everywhere man can only act by means of them, and
everywhere they act in the same way. Human industry employs as
aids light and heat, wind and waterfalls, the properties of im-
ponderable fluids, mechanical and chemical action, innumerable
combinations — in short, laws, movements, affinities, and throughout
the infinite variety of physical phenomena, the forces of Nature
present themselves with the same Economical characters as in
agriculture. They are indispensable to production; they cannot
be utilised without being appropriated; they are limited in their
use and extent ; unequal in power, etc. The profit of the manu-
facturer, like that of the agriculturist, results from their assistance,
and is proportional to the extent and energy of their action. For
if one manufacturer produces more, that is, at less cost than his
neighbours — all personal qualities being the same — it is always
because there they employ a man whom they must pay; he employs
a natural agent, whom he does not pay. And since this economy
in the cost of production only benefits him, as he, of course, sells
exactly at the same price as his competitors with inferior processes,
it is clear that he intercepts and appropriates the wages of his inani-
mate worker, and this interception exactly constitutes his superior
profit
"Hence in manufactures the differences of power among the
agents employed are enormous, and so are the differences of profit
which result from them.
" In the transport of merchandise, for instance, what a shocking
inequality of power between the shoulders of a porter, horses and
waggons, and a railroad ! In spinning, what manual skill can turn
the spindles or the wheel with the speed of mechanism? Be
honest then — in manufactures, perhaps even more than in agri-
culture, it is the instrument which causes production. If therefore
you attribute the power of the instrument to Nature, the share which
Nature can claim in these profits is greater than in any others ; and
the greater profits of manufactures and commerce ought to be
called rent, and the monopoly of natural agents^ just as much as
the moderate profits of 3 or 4 per cent, in agriculture. In short,
in every kind of production you have the same mechanism, the
same combination of the action of men with the action of Nature,
the same differences in the rate of profit, the same influence of the
instrument and capital over the result. More than that, you have
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the same form in the division of the profit, you have the sale,
the loan, and the lease ; the proprietor and the farmer, the capitalist
and the worker, he who furnishes the instrument and he who uses it ;
he who produces and he who only * stretches out his hand to receive
profit' Either it must be clearly said that one has two weights and
two measures ; that one is determined to find quite right in one case
what is abominable in another, or we must apply strictly to the profits
of manufactures the severe analysis applied to the profits from land ;
we must extend to profits and interest (which only proceeds from
them) and to capital this accusation of monopoly, of usurpation, of
parasitism, which we have just seen so clearly expressed against rent
and property in the soil.
" Thus we see all property, movable and immovable, destroyed,
struck with the same charge of original injustice, and all reduced for
protection to some article in the Code. It is not only as is now
proposed that all rent must be confiscated by taxation : it is profits
from manufacturers, an interest which must be attacked by a radical
reform."
Again — " But, simple as it is, this way of looking at produit-net,
profit, revenue, and their consequences, must necessarily escape all
those who, like Ricardo, Rossi, Sismondi, Proudhon, &c, define
Value as the 'quantity of Labour,' and measure it by cost of
production.
" In fact, profit is precisely the excess of selling value, or actual
value, above the cost of production or theoretical value. They then
consider it as an anomaly, a robbery, an iniquity. Hence these dis-
tortions and contradictions into which they have all more or less
fallen. Ricardo himself has fallen into it headlong with a curiously
blind simplicity. The produit-net has, as is well known, three prin-
cipal manifestations, rent of land, profits of manufactures, and
interest of capital Ricardo, in rent, explains it by monopoly and
the price of natural agents ; in profits by a deduction by the employer
from the wages of labour ; in interest, he never suspected that it is
the same problem ; he admits interest as indisputable — educated and
brought up on the London Exchange, from 3 to 5 per cent was
probably for Ricardo an article of faith. Proudhon, a much stronger
and more daring logician, did not deceive himself as to the identity of
the three words, rent, profit, and interest-, he has quite correctly
placed them in the same class as produit-net — a service or product
sold above its cost of production. And since, according to him,
Ricardo, Rossi, Sismondi, &c, the cost of production is the theo-
retical measure of value, and is the just value, naturally all produit-net
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602 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
appeared to him an iniquitous deduction, and he says that rent, profit^
and interest are robbery — and I do not know how to reply to Proud-
hon, if you admit that Value is denned by the quantity of materia)
labour, and measured in each particular case by the cost of pro-
duction."
Now, without finding it necessary to agree with all that M. de
Fontenay has said in his remarkable volume on Rent, he has at least
pointed out jthe fundamental fallacy of breaking up Economic phe-
nomena into separate classes, and finding a separate law of value for
each: and he has shown most irrefragably that rent, profit, and
interest all proceed from the same cause — the excess of the Value
above the cost of production, which can only be effected by the
Intensity of the Demand and the Limitation of the Supply.
They all stand or fall together, and if the State has the right to
confiscate the one, it has the right to confiscate the others ; and we
earnestly commend M. de Fontenay's volume to the attention of
those who believe in Mill's scheme of confiscating the rent of land.
The Rent of land is an excellent example of the general Equation
of Economics. Rent is the money paid by the farmer to the land-
lord for the use of the land. The first indispensable condition of
rent arising is, that one person is the owner of more land than he
can conveniently cultivate himself. A landlord is a capitalist whose
capital consists of land ; and, like all other capitalists, he either
trades with it himself or lets part of it out to others to trade with,
and of course he is entitled to receive interest for the use of his
capital like any other capitalist. The difference between a landlord
who cultivates his own land and a farmer, is just the difference
between the man who trades with his own or on borrowed capital.
A man who has a large amount of capital in land is in a very different
position to one who has his capital in money, because no single man
can trade with any very large amount in land. It is very rarely a
man farms more than a thousand acres of land, but many a merchant
trades with half a million of money. Now, unless a man can trade
with his land himself, or get someone else to do so, it is of no value
to him ; but if the merchant cannot trade profitably with half a
million of money, it will still be useful to him — he can always get
some interest for its use, however small. It is, therefore, a positive
necessity to a man who possesses a large estate to let part of it out
to farmers. No misfortune to a large landed proprietor could be worse
than to have a considerable extent of his estate thrown upon his
hands at once. Now, this circumstance increases the power of the
person who wants to borrow the capital over the one who wants to
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lend it; it is a greater service done to a landlord to take a farm,
than it is to a tenant to. let it to him. In this case, like as in other
loans of capital, we must consider the farmer as the purchaser of the
service ; but when the capital to be borrowed is land, the power of
the purchaser over the seller is much greater than when it is money.
Hence, we must expect that the price of it should necessarily be
lower ; and this is what we actually find to be the case. The rent
of land, or the money paid for the use of that species of capital, is
much less than in the safest mercantile operation. There are, no
doubt, other causes which also tend to produce a similar effect,,
operating simultaneously to increase the difference: but the cause
we first assigned is a true cause of a certain amount of that effect,
though not of the whole of it. The rent of land rarely exceeds 2 \
to 3 per cent, of the value of the land, and is often less than that.
During the great revolutionary war, a succession of bad harvests,
joined to other causes, produced an enormous rise in the price of
corn, so that in 181 2 it reached the price of 150s. a quarter.
Owing to this extraordinary rise of price, an immense quantity of
inferior land was taken into cultivation at an extravagant cost,
because the farmers expected that high prices would be permanent.
Now, let us suppose that the old lands in cultivation had produced
no more than they had done during the years of scarcity, what
would have been the necessary consequence of this additional
quantity of corn added to the market? As the quantity of land
taken into cultivation could only be increased gradually, the first
quantity added to the existing supply would not have added much
to it The proportion between the increment and the existing
supply would not have been great, consequently it would only lower
prices a little, and would leave a large profit to the producer. But
the more land that was brought into cultivation, the more would
the quantity of corn brought to market be, and the more would
prices be lowered. And this might go on until the constantly
increasing quantities of corn lowered the price so much, that it
would only just leave a profit, and further production would cease.
And it is perfectly evident that it would always be the market price
which would indicate how great an expense could be afforded as-
cost of production. Hence, we see that it was the increased price
of corn that called inferior land into cultivation, and it was the
increased quantity of corn produced that lowered the market price,
until the cost of production and the market price might possibly
meet But whether they did so or not would entirely depend upon
the quantity produced.
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604 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. IL
So, in the Highlands of Scotland, the rent of a sheep-farm
depends upon the price of wool and sheep, and not the reverse.
A Highland farmer would smile if he were told that the rent he
paid raised the price of wool and sheep; when he knew well
enough that the rent he could afford to pay depended upon the
price of the produce.
Hence, also, we see the utter fallacy of Ricardo's rule, that it is
the cost of production under the most unfavourable circumstances
that regulates price. The truth is that it is the exact reverse. The
price regulates the greatest cost of production that can be afforded,
or the most unfavourable circumstances under which production
can take place.
From these observations we gather that the farmer is just in the
same position as the manufacturer ; neither of them can command
the price he pleases for the articles he has to sell; consequently
they must each consider what will be the probable value of it when
sold, and then they must devote the whole of their skill and energy
in diminishing the cost of production. In order to do this each
of them calls in the aid of science; the manufacturer in the
mechanical form of machinery, the farmer in the chemical form
of manures and draining, and every other means that science or
skill can suggest to develop the productive powers of the earth.
Neither of them can fix absolutely what the cost of production is,
until every improvement in science has been adopted, and every
resource exhausted. It is undoubtedly true that the cost of pro-
duction and the value of the produce must have a relation to each
other, but the question which is to govern the other is the whole
difference between protection and free trade. Under the former
system, the cost of production might be as extravagant and wasteful
as possible ; the land might be undrained and badly cultivated, and
the object was to secure by law a price which should under all
circumstances cover every conceivable piece of waste and bad
management, which was, with somewhat of a mauvaise plaisanterie,
called the natural price of corn. While the one system held out a
direct reward for every species of mismanagement and ignorance,
and stinted production, the other, on the contrary, encourages skill
and energy, and stimulates production, and so confers upon the
community at large the blessings of as great abundance and cheap-
ness as circumstances permit
Our formula at once explains a fact which is well known to every
one who has a practical acquaintance with the management of
estates, that it is far more advantageous for a landlord to have his
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estate divided into farms of moderate size than very large ones,
because so many more persons have a moderate than a large
quantity of capital, and consequently so many more are able to
compete for a moderate-sized farm than a large one. The landlord
being the seller of the service, his power over each competitor
increases according to their number, and he can demand a higher
price for it. But if a farm is very large, so few can compete for it,
that the landlord's power over each diminishes, and he will usually
be obliged to let it low. The same remark holds good in houses,
and for the same reason ; houses of a moderate size let much better
than those of a large one.
Matthu8 on Rent
The fundamental objection to Smith's work is its total want of
uniformity of principle. Each class of cases is explained by different
principles, which is manifestly contrary to the fundamental nature of
Natural Philosophy.
Colonel Perronet Thompson, who was a good mathematician,
published a pamphlet entitled " The True Theory of Rent, in opposi-
tion to Mr. Ricardo and others? in which he maintained that the
simple cause of rent is everywhere the same as that which gives rise
to the rent of the vineyard which produces Tokay. That this must
be true is manifest to any one who has the slightest notion of a
Physical Science. But it is very surprising that Malthus, who was
also a good mathematician, should dispute this. He says — " First :
That the price of Tokay is not a necessary price, the same quantity
would be produced although the price were considerably lower.
"Secondly : That neither the purchasers of Tokay, nor the
cultivators of it, live upon the produce.
"Thirdly: That there is no limit to the price of Tokay but the
tastes and fortunes of a few opulent individuals.
" How, then, can it possibly be said with truth that the simple
cause of Rent is everywhere the same as that which gives rise to the
rent of the vineyard which produces Tokay? and how entirely
inapplicable is a reference to Tokay as an illustration of the true
theory of Rent!"
It is amazing that so able a man as Malthus should bring so
flimsy an objection against the manifest truth of Thompson's
doctrine. Malthus's knowledge of mathematics should have shown
him that it could by no possibility be anything else than true.
He says that neither the purchasers nor the cultivators of Tokay
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606 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
live exclusively upon the produce. But neither do the producers
nor the purchasers of any other article whatever live exclusively
upon it. The cultivators and purchasers of corn do not live
exclusively upon. corn. The purchasers and cultivators of kelp do
not live upon kelp. The producers and purchasers of stones from
quarries do not live upon the stones. The producers and
purchasers of shoes, cloth, or any other manufactures, do not live
upon cloth or shoes. The growers and purchasers of cattle do not
live exclusively on meat; and so on, of all other products; no
person can live upon any single product. The producers and
purchasers of all these things do not live upon them directly, but
upon them indirectly, i.e., upon their Value, that is upon the various
things which they can get in exchange for them.
The cultivators of corn must have meat and clothing and many
other things besides bread, which they obtain by exchanging a
certain portion of their corn for these things; and the surplus
Value of the corn which remains beyond that maintenance is what
gives Profit and Rent.
So it is with shoes or any other product. Persons do not live
upon them directly ; but indirectly, by obtaining what they want in
exchange for them, and the surplus value which remains after
providing for their maintenance is profit.
It is manifestly precisely the same with Tokay. The producers
of it must exchange away a certain portion of it to provide for their
maintenance; and its surplus value above that gives Profit and
Rent.
Now it is manifest that the whole Value of the product is due to
the Intensity of Demand and the Limitation of Supply : and the
greater the Demand and the greater the Limitation of Supply is, the
greater will be the Value, the greater the surplus, and the greater
the Profit and Rent.
Hence it is precisely the same principle in all products whatever ;
in Tokay, in corn, in kelp, in quarries, in cattle, in shoes, in manu-
factures of all sorts; it is the ratio of Demand and Supply alone
which determines Value ; and the greater the Demand and the less
the Supply, the greater will be the surplus above cost. It is in all
cases only a difference of degree, and not a difference of principle.
If the Supply were greatly increased the Value might so much
diminish, that not only there might be no profit at all, but not even
sufficient to defray the cost, and then production must cease.
Formerly the preparation of kelp was protected by very high duties
on barilla and salt. In consequence of this great quantities of kelp
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were manufactured in the Western Islands and Highlands of Scot-
land, and brought great revenues to the proprietors. The kelp-shores
of one island, North Uist, let for ^7,000 a year ; and about 20,000
tons were made in Scotland, which sold for about ^20 a ton. After
the war the duties on barilla and salt were repealed. Barilla was so
much cheaper and of such -superior quality, that the Value of kelp
immediately diminished ; at last it ceased to be produced, and most
of the unfortunate proprietors whose incomes came principally from
kelp, were totally ruined. Now, the cost and the qualities of the
kelp remained exactly the same as before; but its Value was dimin-
ished by the greater cheapness and superior qualities of barilla.
And since then barilla itself has, in its turn, been almost entirely
superseded by the superior quality and cheapness of artificial soda.
The very same principle appears from Ricardo's theory of Rent.
The actual quantity of corn necessary to support the producers
remains exactly the same, whatever its Value may be. But as the
corn, at whatever cost produced, sells for the same price in the same
market, the portion of it produced with the least cost leaves the
greatest margin between Cost and Value, out of which all Profit
and Rent comes ; and this excess of Value is entirely due to the
Intensity of the Demand and the Limitation of the Supply.
Thus the same principle governs all cases whatever, in strict
accordance with the principles of Natural Philosophy: and the
Value of every product, invariably and at all times, depends exclu-
sively upon Demand and Supply.
From this it follows that if all landlords were swept away the
consumers would receive no benefit. The products of the earth
would not be sold the least cheaper. There would be exactly the
same Demand and exactly the same Supply, and therefore the Value
would remain the same. It can make no manner of difference to
the consumer whether the whole profits go to the farmer alone, or
whether they are divided between landlord and farmer.
It is precisely the same with a capitalist and a trader or manu-
facturer. These latter almost invariably carry on their trade by
means of money borrowed at interest. But the interest is not a
cause of price, but must come out of Profits. If the trader traded
on his own money, he and others would endeavour to limit the
supply so that the Value of the product would afford an interest for
the capital ; and whether he takes that interest himself, or divides
it with a capitalist, can make no difference to the consumer.
Thus we see that Nature alone gives quantities and qualities, but
man alone gives Value ; and whether Agriculture, Commerce, and
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608 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Labour are productive, i.e. produce a Profit, or not, depends upon
exactly the same principle, that is, whether the Intensity of the
Demand and the Limitation of the Supply of the product or the
labour are so great that their Value exceeds the Cost of Production,
or the maintenance of the Labourers.
RES.
Res is one of that class of words which, in early Latin and
archaic Roman Jurisprudence, meant exclusively material things.
Thus Cicero says (De Rep., II. 9-14), "Erat Res in pecore et
locorum possessionibus, ex quo pecuniosi et locupletes vocabantur,"
in the time of Romulus.
" Wealth then consisted in cattle and land, whence they were called
cattled men and landed men"
But in the progress of civilisation, commerce, and jurisprudence,
men began to perceive that they might have property in, and buy
and sell, or exchange, other things besides material ones ; and the
word lies was extended to include everything which men had a
right to, or had property in, or anything whatever which could be
the subject of a Right
Thus material things are the subjects of Rights or Property,
and they were termed Res Corporales, because they are Rights
clothed with a Corpus.
But also a person may have a Right to receive a Profit or
Payment at a future time.
The future payment or profit may not even have come into
existence ; but yet the Right to receive it has a present existence,
and it may be bought and sold, or exchanged, like any material
chattel.
These abstract Rights to receive future payments or profits are
termed Res Incorporates in Roman Law, because they are Rights ;
but they are not clothed with any material Corpus.
In recent times, these Incorporeal Rights have increased in mag-
nitude and multiplied in kind to an enormous extent in our present
state of civilisation, and increased at a much greater ratio than
Corporeal or Material Property.
But persons have a Right or Property in other things besides
material things, and Rights to receive future payments and profits.
A man has a Right in his own Labour, and he can sell that
labour, and he can buy the Right to demand labour and services
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R.] Rights 609
from other people. Hence labour and services are the subjects
of Rights, and therefore they are expressly included under Res
in Roman Law.
Moreover, a person has the Right to enjoy his own character
uninjured. Hence Personal Character is a Jus in rem ; and a
person whose character is attacked has an Actio in rem.
A banker's or a merchant's Credit is part of his Purchasing
Power, or Wealth, just as the labour of the working man is part
of his Purchasing Power, or Wealth ; and it is just as great a crime
to rob a banker or merchant of his Personal Credit, as to rob him
of his Money. Hence Personal Credit is a Res. And a banker
or a merchant whose Credit is wrongfully attacked, has an Actio
in rem.
RIGHTS.
The ancients unanimously held that Exchangeability is the
sole essence and principle of Wealth, and that everything whatever
which can be bought and sold, or exchanged, is Wealth, no matter
what its form or its nature may be.
Thus, besides material things of all sorts, which everyone admits
to be Wealth, an ancient writer showed, in a dialogue termed the
Etyxias, that Labour is Wealth, because it can be bought and sold,
or its Value can be measured in money.
But besides these two orders of Quantity, there is yet a Third
which can be bought and sold, or exchanged, and whose Value can
be measured in Money ; and these are Abstract Rights of various
sorts— Rights, and Rights of Action.
Suppose that a person pays in a sum of money to his account
at his banker's — what becomes of that Money? It becomes the
absolute Property of the banker. The customer cedes the absolute
Property in the Money to the banker, but he does not make him
a present of it. He gets something in exchange for it. And what
is that something? In exchange for the Money the banker gives
his customer a Credit in his books, which is a Right of Action
to demand back an equivalent sum of Money whenever he pleases.
But it is not a title to any specific sum of money in the banker's
possession ; it is a mere Abstract Right of Action against the person
of the banker to demand a sum of money from him. The trans-
action is a Sale or an Exchange. The banker buys the money from
his customer by issuing to him in exchange for it a Right of
Action, and the customer buys this Right of Action with Gold.
2 R
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6 10 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. IL
Furthermore, the banker agrees that his customer may transfer
this Right of Action to anyone else he pleases, by means of a
Bank-note or Cheque.
So this Right of Action may pass through any number of hands,
and effect any number of exchanges, exactly like an equal amount
of money, until the holder jflemands payment of it, and it is
extinguished
When the holder of the Cheque demands payment of it from the
banker, the banker buys up the Right of Action against himself with
Gold, and the holder of the Cheque sells his Right of Action for
Gold.
The transaction is therefore a Sale or an Exchange, and an act
of commerce.
Hence the whole series of these transactions are Sales or
Exchanges. When the customer pays in money to his account it
is an Exchange; when he pays away his Cheque in commerce it
is an Exchange ; every time the Cheque is transferred it is an
Exchange ; and finally when payment is demanded from the banker
it is an Exchange. All these translations are acts of commerce.
This Right of Action is termed a Credit, because anyone who
chooses to take it in Exchange for goods or services knows that it is
not a Title to any specific sum of money in the banker's possession,
but it is only an Abstract Right to demand a sum of money from
him, and the person who takes it only does so because he has the
Belief or Confidence that the banker can pay if required.
It will be convenient to state here that this Right of action is
also termed a Debt, and that both in Law and common usage the
words Credit and Debt are used quite indiscriminately to mean
a Creditor's right of Action against his Debtor. The reason of this
is explained under Debt
Similarly when a merchant sells goods "on Credit," as it is
termed, to a trader, he cedes the Property in the goods to the
trader, exactly as if he had sold them for Money ; and in exchange
for the goods the trader gives the merchant his Promise to pay,
or a Right of Action to demand Money at a future time — say three
months — after date. This Right of Action is also termed a Credit
or a Debt It is the Price the trader pays for the goods. And
if it be recorded on paper, in the form of a Bill of Exchange, it
may be exchanged against other goods, and circulate in commerce,
exactly like an equal sum of money, any number of times, until
it is paid off and extinguished.
Again, suppose that the State wants to borrow money for any
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r.] Rights 611
public purpose — such as a war, or for some great public work — it
buys money from those who are willing to sell it ; and in exchange
for the money, it gives them the Right to Demand a series of
payments from the State, either for ever, or for a certain limited
time. This Right to demand a series of future payments is termed
an Annuity, and is the Price the State pays for the Money.
In popular language they are termed the Funds, and the owners
of these Rights may sell them again to anyone they please. They
are Saleable Commodities, just like any material goods.
Suppose, again, that a person subscribes to the Capital of a Joint
Stock Company — Banking, Railway, Insurance, Canal, Dock, or
any other — he pays the money to the Company, which is a distinct
Person, quite separate from any individual shareholders, and receives
in exchange for it the Right to share in the future profits of the
Company. These Rights are termed Shares, and they are also
saleable commodities; they may be bought and sold like any
material chattels.
So when a trader has established a successful business, he has
the Right to receive the future profits to be made by the business.
This Right to receive the future profits is a Property quite distinct
and separate from the house, or shop, and the actual goods in them.
It is additional to them. It is the product of Labour, skill, thought,
and care, as much as any material chattels, and is a part of the
trader's assets. It is termed the Goodwill of the business, and is
a Saleable Commodity.
Thrale, the great brewer, appointed Johnson one of his executors.
In that capacity it became his duty to sell the business. When the
sale was going on, says Boswell — •' Johnson appeared bustling about,
with an ink-horn and pen in his button-hole, like an exciseman, and
on being asked what he really considered to be the value of the
property which was to be disposed of, answered — * We are not here
to sell a parcel of vats and boilers, but the Potentiality of growing
rich beyond the dreams of avarice. ' " This latter phrase was merely
Johnsonese for the Goodwill of the business. The price realised
was* we are told elsewhere, ^135,000.
When the banking house of Jones, Lloyd, & Co. sold their
business to the London and Westminster Bank, it was said in the
papers that the price paid was ^500,000.
Similarly every successful business has a Goodwill attached to it,
which is a Saleable Commodity, and an asset of the trader's.
So when an author has published a successful work, the Right to
receive the profits to be made by multiplying copies of it is a valuable
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612 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Right, which may be bought and sold like any material chattel, quite
separate from the printed copies of the work. This Right is termed
Copyright, and is a Saleable Commodity.
So when a Professional man has established a successful business,
the Right to receive the future profits of the business is a valuable
Property, which may be bought and sold This Property is termed
a Practice ; it is a Saleable Commodity. It is very usual for young
professional men to establish themselves by buying a Practice, which
then becomes Capital to them.
So there are many other kinds of Property which consist exclu-
sively in Abstract Rights, such as Patents, Tithes, Tolls, Ferries,
Shootings, &c, which we need not enumerate further, because our
object is to describe a certain Order of Quantities, and not to
enumerate them all.
Now these Abstract Rights cannot be seen, nor handled, nor
touched. But they can be bought or sold, or exchanged. Their
Value can be measured in Money. They can be transferred from one
person to another as easily as any material chattels. Therefore they
satisfy Aristotle's definition of Wealth. They all possess that Quality
of Exchangeability which ancient writers unanimously, and
modern Economists now at last, agree, is the sole essence and
principle of Wealth. And therefore, by the fundamental laws of
Natural Philosophy, these Abstract Rights are all Wealth.
General Rule of Roman Law that Rights are Wealth.
Now in the Pandects of Justinian, which are the great Code, or
Digest, of Roman Law, it is laid down as a fundamental General
Rule
" Pecuniae nomine non solum numerata pecunia, sed omnes Res
Urn soli quam mobiles, et tarn corpora quam Jura continentur."
"Under the term Wealth, not only ready Money, but all things,
both immovable and movable, both corporeal things and Rights arc
included."
So the eminent Roman Jurist, Ulpian, says l —
" Nomina eorum qui sub conditione vel in diem debent, et emere
et vendere solemus. Ea enim Res est quae emi et venire potest"
" We are accustomed to buy and sell Debts payable at a certain event,
or on a certain day. For that is Wealth which can be bought and sold"
So it is also said8 — "-d£que Bonis adnumerabitur si quid est in
Actionibus."
1 Liber xxxiv. ad Edict. ■ Digest, 50, 16, 49.
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K.] Rights 613
" Rights of Action are properly reckoned as Goods."
So also1 — " Rei appellatione et Causae et Jura continentur."
" Under the term Property both Rights and Rights of Action are
included."
So Sir Patrick Colquhoun says2 — "The first requisite of the
consensual contract of emptio et venditio is a Merx, or object to be
transferred from the buyer to the seller : and the first requirement is
that it should be in commercio : that is capable of being freely
bought and sold. Supposing such to be the case* it matters not
whether it is an immovable or a movable : corporeal or incorporeal :
existent or non-existent : certain or uncertain : the property of the
vendor or another : thus a Horse or a Right of Action : servitude
or thing to be acquired: or the acquisition whereof depends on
chance.
*' A purchaser may buy of a farmer the future crop of a certain
field, wine which may grow next year on a certain vineyard may be
bought and sold at so much a pipe : or a certain price may be paid
irrespective of quantity or quality, and the price would be due
though nothing grew, or for whatever did grow. In the second
case the bargain is termed emptio spei, and in the first and last emptio
rei sperata, which all such bargains are presumed to be in cases of
doubt.
"The cession of a Right of Action being legal in the Roman
Law : The Right of A to receive a Debt due by B may be sold to
c-
Thus it is clearly seen that Abstract Rights of many various sorts,
including Rights of Action, which in Law, Commerce and
Economics are termed Credits, or Debts, are expressly included
under the terms Pecunia (Wealth): Res (Property): Bona
(Goods or Chattels) : and Merx (Merchandise) in Roman Law.
General Rule of Greek Law that Rights are Wealth.
For nearly 500 years after Constantine removed the seat of
Government from Rome to Constantinople, the language of the
Court was Latin, but the people were Greek. Consequently as the
official language was Latin, it was unintelligible to the mass of the
people.
The great Code of Roman Law, termed the Pandects, was
published in a.d. 530 : but all the pleadings in the Courts were
carried on in Greek. The Latin Pandects soon fell into desuetude :
1 Digest, 50, i6# 23. 2 Summary of Roman Law, Digest, 18, 34, } 1, 2.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
6 14 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. il
they were superseded by Greek treatises, translations and com-
pilations. The Latin Institutes of Justinian did not hold their
place in the curriculum of legal education for more than ten years.
They were superseded by the paraphrase of Theophilus, one of the
Professors of Law who were charged with the compilation of the
Institutes ; and this paraphrase became the text book for the educa-
tion of law students throughout the Eastern Empire.
At last, in the ninth and tenth centuries, under the Basilian
dynasty, all the Pandects, Institutes, and Legislation of Justinian
were set aside as obsolete. A reformed Digest or Code was pub-
lished in Greek, which was called the Basilica — which may mean
either the Imperial Constitutions, or the Code of the Basilian
dynasty, like the Code Napolkon — and this henceforth became the
Law of the Eastern Empire, and has remained to the present time
as the Common Law of all the Greek population in the East, and
is the Common Law of the modern Kingdom of Hellas.
And the Roman definition of Wealth is adopted and confirmed
Thus it is said1 — "ry ovo/ian twv Xp^/xaTwv ov /aovov to. xprjpara,
aAAol iravTa Ta Kivrjra icat dfcivi/r^, icat ra <ra>/iaruca icat Auraia
" Under the term xpripara, or Wealth . . . Rights ate included."
Also2 — "rp rov irpdyfuxros irpixrqyoptijL #cat Atria* #cai rot AiJtata
ir€pt€X€Tai."
" Under the term wpdyfmra, Goods and Chattels, doth Rights of
action and Rights are included"
Thus it is seen that by express enactment in Greek Law, the words
Xprjfuvra and wpdyfrnra include Rights and Rights of Action.
These Rights and Rights of Action are also included under the
terms 'AyaOd (Goods): vtptowia (Estate): 'A<£o/>jm} (Capital):
Owrta and Oficos (Wealth) : and other similar words : they are also
called ouria a^ai^s, Invisible Wealth. And these words include all
the three orders of Economic Quantities.
General Rule of English Law that Rights are Wealth.
It is exactly the same in English, and every other system of
Law — Abstract Rights or Property are included under the term
"Goods," "Goods and Chattels,0 "Chattels," " Merchandise/
"Vendible Commodities," "Incorporeal Chattels," and "Incor-
poreal Wealth" in English Law. And under similar terms in
every other system of Jurisprudence.
1 Basil, ii. 2, 214. s Basil, ii. 2, 21.
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Rights 615
And under Wealth and Capital in Economics.
A Chattel means any Property of any sort which is not freehold.
Thus Sheppard says1: "All kinds of emblements, sown and
growing, grass cut; all money, plate, jewellery, utensils, household
stuffs, Debts, wood cut, wares in a shop, tools and instruments
for work, wares, merchandise, carts, ploughs, coaches, saddles, and
the like; all kinds of cattle, as horses, oxen, kine, bullocks, goats,
sheep, pigs ; and all tame fowl, swans, turkeys, geese, capons, hens,
ducks, poultry, and the like, are accounted as Chattels.
"All Obligations, Bills, Statutes, Recognisances, Judgments, shall
be as a Chattel in the executor.
"All Right of Action to a Personal Chattel is a Chattel."
So in Ford's case2 it was resolved by Popham, Chief Justice of
England and the Court that, " Personal Actions are as well included
within the word 'Goods' in an Act of Parliament as goods in
possession."
So Lord-Chancellor Hardwicke said8: "The Chattels are . . .
the Debts (/>., Rights of Action) due and to be due . . . and
Debts come within the words and meaning of the Act, and would
pass in a will thereby."
Burnet, J., said: "A Bond Debt is certainly a Chattel . . .
the conclusive case is Ford's east, that personal actions are in-
cluded in the word Goods in an Act of Parliament, as goods
in possession."
Parker, L. C. B., said: "But Goods and Chattels include
Debts (Rights of Action). . . . Goods and Chattels comprehend
things-in-action, in the construction of any Act of Parliament"
Lee, C. J., said : "The inquiry is whether Choscs-in-Action are not
included under Goods and Chattels? And I agree, Choses-in-Action
will be included herein."
So Blackstone says4: "For it is to be understood that in our
Law, Chattels, or Goods and Chattels, is a term used to express any
Property, which having regard either to subject matter, or quantity
of interest therein, is not freehold."
" Property, or Chattels Personal, may be either in possession or
action. . . . Property in action is where a man has not the en-
joyment (either actual or constructive) of the thing in question,
but merely a Right to receive it by a suit or action-at-law."
So Mr. J. Williams says6: "Personal Estate is divided in
1 Grand Abridgement, pt. i. s.v. Chattels ; also Touchstone, vol. ii. p. 468.
1 12, Co. I. » Ryall v. Row Us y 1, Vesey, 348.
4 Bk. ii. pt. i. c. 5. B Encycl. Brit. vol. xviii. Art " Personal Estate."
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616 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
English Law into Chattels Real and Chattels Personal; the latter
are again divided into Choses-in-possession and Choses-in-action."
Rights of Action, then, being now shown to be Goods and
Chattels, it is absolutely necessary to observe that it is the
Abstract Right of Action itself which is the "Goods" or
"Chattels," and not any material upon which it may be written
down.
Rights of action, i.e., Credits or Debts, may be bought or sold
with perfect facility even in the Abstract state. It is, however,
very usual to write them down on paper in the form of Bank
Notes, Cheques, Bills of Exchange, and other instruments. By
doing this they become capable of manual delivery, and are trans-
ferable from hand to hand like Money or any other material chattel.
Abstract Rights of Action are Incorporeal Chattels; but when
written down on paper they become Corporeal Chattels, or Material
Commodities, exactly like Money.
Hence the reader must observe that writing a Right of Action
down on paper in no way alters its nature. Doing so is merely a
convenient form of rendering it capable of being transferred in
commerce. But it is exactly of the same nature and effects whether
written down on paper or not.
Modern Economists include Rights of Action, i.e.9 Credits or
Debts : under the term Circulating Capital.
It has been shown that the Economists steadfastly refused to
admit Credits or Debts, *'.*., Rights of Action, to be Wealth.
But it has been shown in book i. chap. iii. that Smith expressly
classes Bank Notes and Bills of Exchange under the term Circu-
lating Capital; hence Smith expressly recognises the three orders
of Exchangeable Quantities, and that Credits are Wealth and
Capital.
Thus Smith expressly includes Money under the term Circulating
Capital. And under Money he includes Bank Notes, Bills of
Exchange, &c, which he terms Paper Money — which term is not
quite correct — because though under certain circumstances Bank
Notes and Bills of Exchange may be, and in an immense number
of cases are, Money, as has been already shewn — still they are
not absolutely Money. But they are all included under the term
Paper Currency.
Among several passages it will be sufficient to quote one here l —
1 Wealth of Nations, bk. ii. ch. ii.
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" Suppose that different banks and bankers issue Promissory Notes
payable to bearer on demand to the extent of one million, reserving
in their different coffers ^200,000 for answering occasional demands.
There would remain therefore in circulation ^800,000 in gold and
silver, and ;£i, 000,000 in Bank Notes ; or ;£i,8oo,ooo of Paper
and Money together." He also observes that Credits in the Bank
of Amsterdam were termed Bank Money. Thus we see that
Smith, in this and numerous other passages, places Paper Credit
exactly on the same footing as Money, as independent property, and
of the same value as gold and silver.
So J. B. Say says1 — "The exclusive possession which in the
midst of society clearly distinguishes the Property of one person
from that of another in common usage, is that to which the title
of Wealth is given [not unless this Property is Exchangeable]
.... Under this title are included not only things which are
directly capable of satisfying the wants of man, either natural or
social, but the things which can satisfy them only indirectly, such
as money, Instruments of Credit (Titres de Creance) and the Public
Funds."
Thus Say expressly includes Instruments of Credit and the
Funds, which are mere Rights of Action) under the term
Wealth: and he also includes Bills of Exchange, Bank Notes,
and Bank Credits — which are all Credit — under the term Capital.
Thus he says that if a Bank can maintain in circulation a greater
quantity of Notes than it retain specie in reserve, it augments by so
much the Capital of the country.
So he also says 2 — " We must include under Capital many objects
which have a value, although they are not material. The Practice
of an advocate or notary, the Custom of a shop, the Repre-
sentative of a sign -board, the Title of a periodical work, are
undoubtedly Property (Biens) — they may be bought and sold, and
be the subject of a contract ; and they are also Capital, because
they are the fruit of accumulated labour." How are Bank Notes
and Bills of Exchange, which Say admits to be Capital, the fruit of
accumulated labour?
So Mill says8 — "We have now found that there are other
things, such as Bank Notes, Bills of Exchange and Cheques
[which are Credit] which circulate as Money, and perform all the
functions of it"
1 Traiti d: 'Economic Politique, p. 1.
9 Cours d9 Economic Politique* pt. iv. chap. v.
• Principles of Political Economy, bk. iii. ch. xii. § 1.
<t&£ Lir>:
I* OF THE
[tjniver
CALIFORNIA
618 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
He also designates Bank Notes as Productive Capital
Whately is the only English Economist, that we are aware of, who
has drawn especial attention to Incorporeal Property.
He says1 — "The only difficulty I can foresee as attendant on the
language I have been now using,, is one which (i.e., defining Political
Economy as the Science of Exchanges) vanishes so readily on a
moment's reflection, as to be hardly worth mentioning.
" In many cases where an exchange really takes place, the fact is
liable (till the attention be called to it) to be overlooked, in con-
sequence of our not seeing any actual transfer, from hand to hand,
of a material object For instance, when the copyright of a book is
sold to a publisher, the article transferred is not the mere paper
covered with writing, but the exclusive Privilege of printing and
publishing. It is plain, however, on a moment's thought, that the
transaction is as real an exchange as that which takes place between
the bookseller and his customers who buy copies of the work. The
payment of Rent for land is a transaction of a similar kind, though
the land itself is a material object ; it is not this that is parted with
to the tenant, but the Right to till it, or to make use of it in some
other specified manner. Sometimes, for instance, Rent is paid for
a Right of way through another's field, or for liberty to erect a booth
during a fair, or to race or exercise horses."
And Whately says in a note to this passage— "This instance, by
the way, evinces the impropriety of limiting the term Wealth to
material objects."
Thus, in this passage is found the first dim perception, that we
are aware of, that all Exchanges consist of the Exchange of Rights
against Rights, as will be shown further on.
We need not multiply quotations — in fact, those we have already
given are chiefly for the benefit of lay readers — because it is one
of the most elementary principles of Mercantile Law, clearly en-
forced and explained by every Jurist in the world, that a simple
abstract Right of Action, Credit, or Debt (and other abstract
Rights with which we are not concerned in this work) is included
under the terms Pecunia, Res, Bona, Merx; xP^f^y irpaypa-i o&cos,
ovoria, dyaOd, &c. ; goods, chattels, goods and chattels, vendible
commodities, incorporeal chattels, incorporeal wealth; that Rights
and Rights of Action can be bought and sold or exchanged, their
Value can be measured in money, in every respect like any other
material chattels.
The stupendous importance of this doctrine, that Rights and
1 Lectures on Political Economy, p. 6.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
S.] Shares in Commercial Companies 619
Rights of Action are goods, chattels, merchandise, vendible com-
modities and wealth, consists in this, that modern commerce is
almost exclusively carried on by means of Rights of Action, Credits,
or Debts. Money is only used to such an infinitesimal degree that
it may almost be neglected. The principal use of Money in com-
merce now is to keep such a stock of it as may be necessary to
maintain the convertibility, or value of the circulating Credits.
Moreover, in recent times Rights, in the form of Securities of
various sorts, and Rights of Action in the form of public and private
Debts form a most important article of import and export between
countries, and have exactly the same effects on the Foreign
Exchanges, and the movements of Bullion, as material goods.
SHARES IN COMMERCIAL COMPANIES.
In comparatively recent times a gigantic species of Incorporeal
Property has come into existence. Commercial enterprises are now
conducted on such a colossal scale, that no single person possesses
sufficient capital for them. They require the contributions of a
large number of persons for them. When such Companies are
formed, the Company itself is a Persona, quite separate and distinct
from its individual members. Each subscriber pays over his money
to the Company, and then he loses all right in it ; and in exchange
for the money, he receives a certificate entitling him to share in
the profits made by the Company in the proportion in which he
has subscribed to the capital. These certificates are called Shares.
The members of a Joint Stock Company are like the Fund-holders ;
they have no right to demand back their subscriptions from the
Company; but they can sell their Shares in the open market.
Thus the Shares are a property quite separate and distinct from
the Capital paid in; they are a mere abstract Right to share in
the profits to be made by the future trading of the Company.
The Value of the Shares in no way depends upon the sum
originally paid for them ; but upon the income or profits made by
the trading of the Company ; and, of course, on the usual rate of
interest If the profits made by the Company fall short of the
average rate of interest, the Shares fall to a discount ; if the profits
exceed the usual rate of interest, the Shares may rise to an
enormous premium. The most striking instance that we are aware
of between the cost of production, or the sum paid as Capital, and
the value of the Shares as the Right to the future profits of the
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620 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Company, is the value of the Shares of the New River Water
Company. When Sir Hugh Myddelton and his co-adventurers
constructed this canal in the reign of James I., so little were the
blessings of pure water understood by the citizens of London, that
the patriotic projector was ruined, and obliged to sell his shares.
However, the demand for water gradually grew, and with it the
value of the Shares rose until an original Share of ;£ioo was at one
time worth ^20,000, and was considered as a good dowry for the
daughter of a wealthy City merchant In 1878 parts of these
Shares were sold at the rate of ^93,000 per Share ; and we believe
that their value has increased since. All Shares in Commercial
Companies are the emptio spei; and are one form of Incorporeal
Property.
TITHES.
Tithes are one form of Incorporeal Property. The word is one
of a numerous class, like Rent, Debt, Estate, Farm, and others
which in reality mean Rights, but which in the corruption of
common language have been misapplied to mean things.
In ecclesiastical law Tithes are the Right to demand the tenth
part of the gross yearly income from the land; the stock upon
land; and the personal industry of the inhabitants.
Tithes of the gross produce of the land itself, such as corn,
hay, hops, fruits of all sorts, are called pradial Tithes ; Tithes from
the gross yearly increase of the stock upon land, such as calves,
lambs, pigs, poultry, eggs, butter, cheese, &c, are called mixed
Tithes; and Tithes from the gross income of personal industry
of all sorts, handicrafts, and professions, are called personal Tithes.
By a series of Statutes extending from our Anglo-Saxon kings
until Edward VI., and by a long series of Ecclesiastical Canons
confirmed by Statute, every person was bound to pay one-tenth
of his gross income, from whatever source arising, as Tithe. The
tenth guinea earned by every lawyer, every medical man, every
engineer, every merchant, every banker, every trader, and every
trading concern, by the Bank of England and every Joint Stock
Bank, by the Times, Standard, Telegraph, and every other news-
paper, is as rightfully and legally payable as Tithe as the tenth sheaf,
the tenth lamb, the tenth pig, the tenth egg, the tenth cheese, of the
farmer. But all classes of the community have shuffled off this burden
from their necks, except the agriculturists. These patient beasts of
burden are now the sole persons who bear the weight of Tithes.
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v.] Value 621
TRADE SECRETS.
Trade Secrets are a species of Immaterial Property, and a form
of Property in Ideas. Persons may devise methods of combining
material things in a certain way, which meets the popular demand,
and keep such methods secret. Such trade secrets may produce
large revenues to their discoverers, and therefore are Capital to
them ; and they are capable of being bought and sold ; and, there-
fore, their Value may be measured in money ; and consequently they
are Wealth and partnership assets. Such trade secrets are evidently
the produce of pure Thought or Labour ; as much as any material
chattels, and are a very valuable form of Wealth.
A very curious question has been raised, whether if a person
becomes bankrupt he can be compelled to give up trade secrets to
his Creditors like other property. In the 17th century a person in
Scotland, named Anderson, discovered a method of making pills
which became extremely popular, and the successive possessors of
the secret made large fortunes. At last the possessor of it became
bankrupt, and the Creditors claimed that the owner of it should
give up the knowledge of this secret to his Creditors as well as his
other property. The question was brought before the Courts in
Scotland, but we are not aware whether it was ever cleared up;
and if so, how.
VALUE.
Whately says in the appendix to his Logic, p. 389 : " As Value is
the only relation with which Political Economy is conversant, we
might expect all Economists to be agreed as to its meaning. There
is no subject as to which they are less agreed."
This is essentially true, though it would be difficult to say on
which subject Economists are in most disaccord with each other
and with themselves. But the consequences of the erroneous
doctrines on Value propagated by Adam Smith and Ricardo are so
momentous and fatal that we must enter into a thorough examination
of the subject.
Preliminary Remarks.
It has been shown in the article Wealth that ancient writers
for 850 years unanimously held that Exchangeability is the sole
essence and principle of Wealth, and that whatever can be bought
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622 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
and sold, or exchanged, or whose Value can be measured in money,
is Wealth, whatever its form or its nature may be.
The ancients also showed that there are three distinct orders of
Quantities that satisfy these conditions: (i) Material things; (2)
Personal Qualities, both in the form of Labour and Credit; (3)
Abstract Rights.
After centuries of controversy, modern writers have at length
come to the same conclusion as the ancients.
And as it is a matter of positive knowledge that there is nothing
beyond these three Orders of Quantities which can be bought and
sold, or exchanged, or whose Value can be measured in money, the
Science is now complete. Consequently, having generalised all our
Fundamental Concepts, so as to grasp all these three Orders of
Quantities, by the Laws of Inductive Logic, we are sure that our
Concepts cannot be overthrown or modified.
Now, if at any time the Proprietors of any two objects agree to
exchange them, then each of the two Quantities is termed The
Value of the other.
Suppose that at any time one ounce of Gold will exchange for
18 ounces of silver, then it is said that one ounce of Gold is of the
Value of 18 ounces of Silver, which is simply this equation —
1 oz. of Gold = 18 oz. Silver.
Hence Value may be said to be the Sign of Equality between
any two Economic Quantities.
We have then this Definition —
The Value of any Economic Quantity is any Other Economic
Quantity for which it can be exchanged.
Hence any Economic Quantity has as many Values as other
Economic Quantities it can be exchanged for, and of course, if it
can be exchanged for nothing it has no Value.
Value, then, by the definition requires two objects, just as
Distance and a Ratio require two objects. A single object cannot
have Value, any more than a single object can be Distant or EquaL
If we are told that any object is Distant or Equal, we immediately
ask Distant from what? or Equal to what?
So if it be said that any object has Value, we must ask, Value in
what?
It is also clear that as it is absurd to speak of a Quantity having
Absolute, or Intrinsic Distance, or Equality, so it is equally absurd
to speak of a Quantity having Absolute, or Intrinsic Value.
Hence the Theory of Value is the investigation of the Laws
which govern the Relations of these Exchangeable Quantities.
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V.] Value 623
The complete Theory of Value comprehends —
1. The Definition of Value.
2. The Origin, Cause, or Form, of Value.
3. The General Law of Value, or the General Equation of
Economics.
On each of these three subjects there has been an immense
amount of controversy, which we have endeavoured to reduce to a
minimum in the present section.
Section I.
The Definition of Value.
I. Value, in its original sense, is a Desire or Affection of the
Mind, towards some object : It means Esteem, or Estimation.
As Glo'ster says, in Lear — " In the division of the Kingdom, it
appears not which of the Dukes he Values most"
So in Troihts and Cressida, Troilus says —
" For what is aught, but as 't is Valued ? "
So Henry Esmond says — " There is some particular prize we all
of us Value: and that every man of spirit will venture his life
for."
So J. B. Say says— "Value is a Moral Quality."
And other instances too numerous to cite.
Now a person may Value his friend very highly : or he may Value
some object in his possession very highly: or he may desire to
obtain something which is in some one else's possession very much.
But as Economics is the Science of Commerce, or Exchanges, such
Value does not enter into Economics.
To bring Value into Economics, a person must not only have an
estimate of some object, or property, of his own : but he must have
a Desire, or Value, for something which is in some one else's
possession: and be willing to give some of his own property in
exchange for it
One person, however, cannot acquire an object which another
person possesses, without giving him in exchange for it some object
which that other person Desires, Demands, and Values.
Hence, Economic Value necessarily requires the Concurrence of
Two Minds.
If a person brought a cargo of tobacco to a nation of non-
smokers, it would have no Value among them: because no one
among them would Desire or Demand it
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624 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
If a person brought a cargo of wine to a nation of teetotalers,
it would have no Value : because no one among them would
Desire or Demand it : and therefore no one would buy it
It would be vain for farmers to breed cattle or herds among a
nation of vegetarians : because no one would Desire them ; there
would be no Demand for them : and therefore no one would buy
them.
However much a person may wish to sell his product, he cannot
do so unless some one else will buy it : and in that case it would
have no Economic Value. Hence, for an exchange to take place,
there must be the Reciprocal Desire, or Demand, of Two
persons, each for the product of the other.
When, however, two persons each Desire or Demand to obtain
the product of the other: and when they have agreed as to the
quantity of their own product which they will give in exchange to
acquire the product of the other : each product may be said to be
the Measure of the Desire of its owner to acquire the product
of the other. The two products, therefore. Measure the Desire,
Demand, or Value of their respective owners to obtain the product
of the other : and when two persons have agreed upon the Quan-
tities of their products to be exchanged, the two products are said
to be Equal Value : each product is the Value, or the Demand,
for the other. And this is the only kind of Value with which
Economics is concerned.
Hence in every phenomenon of Economic Value, or Exchange,
there are two Quantities and two Demands : and it is evident
that the true Origin or Cause of Value is Reciprocal Demand.
Thus let A and B be any two Economic Quantities which are
exchanged at any instant : then we may say —
A valet B
or, A is of the value of B,
or, A = B.
Then B is the value of A in terms of B : and A is the value of
B in terms of A. And, therefore, Value is the Sign of Equality
between any two Economic Quantities.
Thus Aristotle says 1 —
" rj &' a£ia Xcycrat wpbs to itcrbs dyaOd " —
" Now the term Value is used in reference to External things?
So it is said in Roman Law —
" Res tanti Valet quanti vendi potest" —
" The value of a thing is what it can be sold for?
Nieomach. Ethics, bk. iv. c. 3.
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v.] Value 625
The Greek word for Value is a£«x : which is derived from ayw,
one of whose meanings is to Weigh, or be of the weight of.
Thus Demosthenes, speaking of some golden goblets, says1 —
" ayovtra exacrn; jwav " — " Each one weighing a mina?
And he says of the sword of Mardonius2 — "os #yc t/houcoo-iovs
Safxucovs " — " Which weighed three hundred darics?
So Homer says8 —
&fJKf h dywva <jxp<t>v" —
" And he offered, too, as a prize, a new caldron, ornamented with
flowers, worth an ox"
Hence a£ta meant Equality, weight for weight: as when two
quantities placed in a balance are of equal weight.
So in Latin cestimatio means exactly the same as a£ ia : it means
the quantity of Money (as) given for anything.
Thus Circero4 speaks of " cestimatio frumenti" — " The Value of
the corn to be furnished?
So Caesar6 speaks of— " cestimatio rerutn et possessionum" — "The
Value of their goods and chattels?
So Catullus says, 12, 11 —
" Quod me non movet aestimatione " —
" Which does not affect me on account of its Value?
So Value was also expressed by ponderare, andpendere, to weigh.
So Morocco says6—
" Pause there, Morocco,
And Weigh thy Value with an even hand."
So Portia warns Shylock7 —
" If the scale do turn
But in the (estimation of a hair,"
i.e. by the weight of a hair.
So Le Trosne says 8 that Value is a new quality which products
acquire when men live in society.
"Products acquire, then, in the social state, which arises from
the community of men among each other, a new Quality. This
new Quality is Value : which makes Products become wealth.
"Value consists in the Ratio of Exchange, which takes place
between such and such a product : between such a Quantity of one
product and such a Quantity of another product.
1 Against Androtion, 617, 21. 2 Against Timacra/es, 741, 7.
• Iliad, xxiii. 885. 4 Ver. 2, 53.
8 Bell. Civil. 3, 1. 8 Merchant of Venice, act ii sc 7,
7 Ibid, act iv. sc 1. 8 De Vlntirtt Sociale, ch. i. sec. 4.
2 S
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626 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
"Price is the expression of Value: it is not separate in
Exchange : each thing is reciprocally the price of the merchandise :
in a Sale the Price is the Money."
Hence it is clear that Value is a Ratio, or an Equation : like
Distance and an Equation, it necessarily requires two objects.
The Value of anything is always something external to itself.
Hence a single object cannot have Economic Value. A single
object cannot be Equal, or Distant. If an object is said to be
Equal or Distant, we must ask — Equal to what? or, Distant from
what? So, if any quantity is said to have Value, we must ask —
Value in what? And as it is absurd to speak of Absolute or
Intrinsic Distance: or Absolute or Intrinsic Equality: so it is
equally absurd to speak of Absolute or Intrinsic Value.
It is impossible to predicate that any Quantity has Value, without
at the same time implying that it can be exchanged for something
else : and of course everything it can be exchanged for is its Value
in that commodity. Hence any Economic Quantity has as many
Values as Quantities it can be exchanged for: and if it can be
exchanged for nothing it has no value.
Examples of Value.
2. Any Economic Quantity may have Value in terms of any
other.
Suppose that A as above is ten guineas: then B may be any
one of the other three species of Economic Quantities. It may be
a watch, or so much corn, or wine, or clothes, or any other material
chattel.
Or it may be so much Labour, Instruction, or Amusement, or
Service.
Or it may be a Right of Action, or a Debt : or the Funds : or a
Copyright : or any other Abstract Right
Each of these species of property is of the Value of ten guineas :
and it follows that each of them is equal in Value to the other:
because, Things which are equal to the same thing are equal to
each other.
The Value of the Money in the pockets of the public is the
products, services, and Rights it can purchase. The Value of the
goods in the warehouses of merchants and traders is the Money in
the pockets of the public.
The Value of an Incorporeal Right is the thing promised which
may be demanded.
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v.] Value 627
The Value of a £5 Note is five sovereigns: the Value of a
postage-stamp is the carriage of a letter: the Value of a Railway-
Ticket is the journey: the Value of an Order to see the play, is
seeing the play : the Value of a Promise to cut a man's hair is the
cutting of the hair: the Value of an Order for milk, bread, wine,
soup, coals, &c, is the milk, bread, wine, &c.
If I want a loaf of bread which costs a shilling : what difference
does it make to me whether I have a shilling, or the Promise of the'
baker to give me a loaf? It is clear that in this case the ^Shilling
and the Promise are of exactly the same Value to me.
Suppose that the price of cutting a man's hair is a Shilling:
what difference does it make to me whether I have a Shilling, or
the Promise of the hairdresser to cut my hair? In this case it
is clear that the Shilling and the Promise are of exactly equal
Value to me.
In short, in the case of every product and service, the Money to
purchase it with, and a promise to render the product, or service, are
of exactly equal Value in each separate case.
Each separate tradesman of course only promises to render one
particular product, or service : and as the product, or service, is not
demandable from anyone else, each promise has only Particular
Value : and as that person may become bankrupt, or die, the
Promise has only Precarious Value.
Now what is Money by the unanimous consent of Economists?
It is nothing but a general Right, or Title, to demand a product
or service, from any person who is in the habit of rendering them
at any time : and as there is always some person who can render
them, if another cannot : Money has General and Permanent
Value : while each of these Promises has only Particular and
Precarious Value.
Each of these separate Rights, then, is of exacdy the same Nature
as Money : but it is of an inferior degree. But they are, each of
them, Economic Quantities, or Wealth; for the very same reason
that Money is. Is it not clear that if a person had his pockets full
of Promises by solvent persons to render him all the products and
services he might require, he would be exactly as Wealthy as if he
had so much Money ? And he can always sell, or exchange, any of
these orders for orders for a different thing. Hence we see the
perfect justice of the doctrine of all Jurists that Rights are
Wealth.
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628 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
On Negative Values.
3. Value, then, being the Desire, or Affection of the Mind,
towards some object, may be of two forms: either the Desire to
Acquire some object, or the Desire to Get rid of it
As these Desires are Inverse and Opposite, they may be denoted
by opposite signs : if the Desire to obtain something be termed
Positive Value, the Desire to get rid of something may be termed
Negative Value.
Thus if we consider a piece of land just in the fit state to be
cultivated, to be in the state o: it may be covered with primeval
forest, with marshes and fens, with jungle, and huge boulders : or
any other obstructions to cultivation. It may require a considerable
sum of money to clear away all these obstructions and bring it into
a fit state for cultivation, which we have denoted by o : the sum
necessary to clear away all these obstructions, and bring it into the
state o, may be termed its Negative Value.
So when it is intended to build a street of improved houses, the
ground when it is in a state fit to be built upon, may be denoted
by o: but it may be covered with old buildings, which it is
necessary to clear away before it is fit to be built upon: the
sum necessary to be spent in clearing away these old buildings,
and bringing it into a state for the erection of new ones, may be
termed its Negative Value.
So if the state of a person in health be denoted by o : he may fall
into illness and require the services of a physician : or he may meet
with an accident and require the services of a surgeon to bring him
into a state of health. As the fees paid to the physician or surgeon
are paid for removing obstructions to health : they may be termed
Negative Values.
If all people were perfectly honest and never invaded the Rights
of other people, a very large portion of the fees paid to members of
the legal profession would be saved : if we consider the state of a
person in possession of his Rights as o : all the sums expended in
defending, maintaining, and recovering his Rights are spent in
removing the obstructions to his enjoyment of his Rights : and may
be termed a Negative Value.
If we consider persons in the enjoyment of perfect security as to
their persons and property as o : and if people were perfectly honest
and never attacked their neighbours' persons and property, there
would be no use for the police : hence all sums spent on the police,
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which are spent merely for the purpose of warding off attacks on
person and property, may be termed a Negative Value.
If the reign of universal peace had come, and nations did not
attack one another: the enormous armaments by sea and land which
weigh down the population and finances of all European nations
might be saved. So all the sums spent by nations on their fleets
and armies are Negative Values.
So many other instances of Negative Value might be cited
Hence, generally, Positive Value is the desire to acquire some-
thing ; Negative Value is the desire to get rid of something.
Now it is evident that all the sums spent on Negative Values, or
on removing obstructions, are just so much subtracted from Positive
Values, or the acquirement of Wealth, or enjoyments.
We thus see what a gigantic obstruction to progress and Wealth
these European armaments are : and what an immense advantage in
progress of Wealth it is to America to be free from them : and to
devote all the money and people employed in Europe on Negative
Values to the increase of Positive Values.
It was the observation that there are two kinds of Value, Positive
Value and Negative Value, to which we first drew attention, which
led Stanley Jevons, as he acknowledged, to designate Economics by
the somewhat fantastic title of the Calculus of Pleasure and Pain.
There may be General Rise or Fall of Prices : but not of Values.
4. Price is the Value of any Economic Quantity in Money or
Credit Now if Money or Credit be very greatly increased, or
decreased, in Quantity, the Prices of all other Economic Quantities
may rise or fall : but they will still preserve their relations among
each other
If a loaf of bread and a pound of meat each cost a shilling : and
if in consequence of a great increase in the Quantity of Money, or
Credit, they each rise to two shillings : or if in consequence of a
great decrease in the Quantity of Money, or Credit, they each fall
to sixpence : the loaf of bread is still of the Value of a pound of
meat.
Hence there may be a general Rise, or a general Fall, of Prices.
But there can be no such thing as a general Rise, or a general
Fall, in Values. Everything can no more rise or fall in Value
with respect to everything else, than, as Mill says, a dozen runners
can each outrun the rest : or a hundred trees can each overtop each
other.
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630 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
To suppose that all things could rise relatively to each other
would be to realise Pat's idea of society, where every one is as good
as his neighbour, and a great deal better, too.
The opposite case of everything falling in Value with respect to
everything else would be analogous to every one thinking himself
inferior to every one else: which, according to human nature and
St. Paul, would be an impossible case.
Nothing can have Fixed Value unless Everything has
Fixed Value.
5. As Value is the Ratio in which any two Quantities will
exchange, it is clear that the Value of A with respect to B varies
directly as B : that is, that it increases or decreases according
to the greater or less Quantity of B that A can purchase. And
the Value of B in terms of A varies directly as A: that is, it
increases or decreases according as B can purchase more or
less of A.
It is also clear that if from any cause whatever the Value, or
Ratio, between A and B has changed : the Value of both of them
has changed.
It is manifestly as absurd to say that the Value of A has
changed with respect to B : but the Value of B has remained
the same: as it would be to say that a railway station has re-
mained at the same distance from a train, while the train has
increased its distance from the station.
Moreover it is as absurd to say that a Quantity has changed its
own Value : or kept its own Value fixed : without stating the
Quantities with respect to which its Value has changed or remained
fixed : as it would be to say that an object has changed or preserved
its Distance, or its Ratio, fixed : without saying its Distance from
what : or its Ratio to what.
Hence it is clear that nothing can have Fixed, or Invariable
Value : unless everything else has Fixed and Invariable Value as
well. Because, though a Quantity may retain its Value unchanged
with respect to a certain number of Quantities: yet if its Value
has changed with respect to other Quantities: its Value has
changed.
From this it will be seen that it is utterly futile to seek for
a Currency, or Circulating Medium, of Fixed or Invariable
Value.
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Section II.
On the Origin, Source, or Cause of Value.
6. We now come to the second branch of our inquiry — What is
the Origin, Source, or Cause, of Value ? Or, in the language
of Bacon — What is the Form of Value ? And whence does it
originate ?
Now, when we are to search for the Cause of Value, it is neces-
sary to understand what we are searching for. There are three
distinct orders of Quantities, each containing many varieties, which
all have Value. We have to discover some Single Cause which
is common to them all : and ascertain what that Single cause is by
genuine induction.
Bacon says1 — "But the Induction which is to be available for
the discovery and. demonstration of sciences and arts, must analyse
nature by proper rejections and exclusions: and then after a
sufficient number of Negatives, come to a conclusion on the
Affirmative instances."
Also2 — " What the sciences stand in need of is a form of Induc-
tion which shall analyse experience, and take it to pieces and by
a due process of exclusion and rejection, lead to an inevitable
conclusion."
The first step in this process of Induction is to make a complete
collection of all the different kinds of Quantities, of whatever nature
they may be, which have Value8 — " For whoever is acquainted with
Forms [i.e., Causes] embraces the unity of Nature in substances the
most unlike. From the discovery of Forms [Causes] results truth
in Theory and Freedom in Practice.,,
Bacon earnestly inculcates as the foundation of all true science a
careful collection of all kinds of instances in which the given nature
is found4 — " The investigation of Forms [Causes] proceeds thus : a
nature [such as Value] being given, we must first of all have a
presentation before the understanding of all known instances which
agree in the same nature, though in substances the most unlike: and
such collection must be made in the manner of history, without
premature theory."
Bacon then exemplifies his method by an investigation into the
Form, or Cause, of Heat He gives tables of the divers instances
agreeing in the nature of Heat ; also where it appears in different
1 Nov. Org. bk. i. aph. 105. a Distributio Opens.
* Nov. Org. bk. ii. aph. 3. 4 Nov. Org. bk. ii. aph. II.
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632 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II-
degrees1 — "The work and effect of these tables I call the presenta-
tion of instances to the understanding; which presentation having
been made, Induction itself must be set to work ; for the problem is
upon a review of instances, all and each, to find such a nature as is
always present or absent with the given nature ; and always increases
and decreases with it ; and which is, as I have said, a particular case
of a more general nature.
" We must therefore make a complete solution and separation of
nature, not, indeed, by fire ; but by the Mind, which is a kind
of divine fire. The first work, therefore, of true Induction (so far as
the discovery of causes) is the rejection or exclusion of the several
natures which are not found in some instances where the given
nature is present ; and are found in some instances where the given
nature is absent ; or are found to increase in some instances where
the given nature decreases ; or to decrease where the given nature
increases. Then indeed, after the rejection and exclusion has been
duly made, there will remain at the bottom, all light opinions
vanishing in smoke, a Cause affirmative, solid, and true, and well
defined."
As an indispensable part of Induction is the rejection of erroneous
causes3 — " I must now give an example of the exclusion and
rejection of natures, which, by the table of presentations, are found
not to belong to the Form, or Cause [of Value], observing in the
meantime not only each table suffices for the rejection of any
nature, but even any one of the particular instances contained in
any one of the tables. For it is manifest from what has been said,
that any one contradictory instance overthrows a conjecture as to the
Caused
Investigation of the Form or Cause of Value.
7* Bacon has exemplified his process of Induction by investigating
the Form, or Cause, of Heat ; our present task is to investigate the
Form, or Cause, of Value.
Following the example of the mighty Master, we must begin by
making a complete collection of all the Instances of Value. That
is, we must enumerate all [the different kinds of Quantities, with all
their varieties, which have Valuef)
These are :
1. [Corporeal or Material Quantities J under this species are
comprehended the following varieties :
Lands, Houses, Trees, Cattle, Flocks and Herds of all sorts, Com
* Ncv. Org. bk. ii. aph. 16. a N&v, Org. bk. ii. aph. 18.
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v. Value 633
and all other fruits of the earth, Furniture, Clothes, Money, Minerals
of all sorts, Jewellery, Pearls, Manufactured articles of all sorts,
Fish, Game. ^
2. [immaterial Quantities^) comprehending Labour of all sorts,
agricultural, artisan, professional, scientific, literary, trade secrets,
news.
3. ^Incorporeal Quantities I) comprehending Rights of Action, *
Credits or Debts, the Funds, Shares in commercial companies,
Copyrights, Patents, the Goodwill of a business, a Professional
Practice, Tolls, Ferries, Tithes, Advowsons, Rents, Shootings,
Fishings, Market Rights, and all other Valuable Rights.
{_We must now investigate the Cause of Value in all these
different kinds of Quantities, and in all their varieties, and in each
one separately. We must first by a due course of Rejections and /
Exclusions eliminate all accidental and intrusive ideas which may in
some cases be associated with Value ; and in other cases not ; and
after completing this course of Rejections and Exclusions, we must
end by an Affirmative ; and discover that Single General
Cause, which is common to all these different classes of Quantities;
which, being present, Value is present; which, when it increases,
Value increases ; which, when it decreases, Value decreases ; and
which, being absent, Value is absent. 1
Materiality is not Necessary to Value.
& Now in examining these three classes of cases which all have
Value, we observe that the whole class of Immaterial Quantities, and
the whole class of Incorporeal Quantities, have Value, but have no
Materiality.
Hence it is evident that Materiality is not Necessary to
Value : it is only in some cases the Accident of Value.
Permanence, or Durability, is not Necessary to Value.
9. We also observe that some things which have Value last
for ever, like the Land, the Funds, Precious Stones, Statues,
Coins.
Other things may last a very long time, such as houses, watches,
pictures. Other things have a very much less degree of durability,
such as clothes, animals. Others have a very short degree of dura-
bility, such as food, flowers.
But Labour, which in many cases has very high Value, perishes in
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634 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms
the very instant of its production, and therefore has no durability, or
permanence at all.
Thus, Quantities which have Value, have all degrees of per-
manence or durability. Now among Bacon's Prerogative instances
he mentions Ultimity, or Limit, and says l — " Nor should extremes
in the lowest degree be less noticed than instances in the highest
degree."
This is the doctrine of the Law of Continuity, which says —
"That which is true up to the Limit, is true at the Limit. "
From these principles it follows that things which have the lowest
degree of permanence, or durability, which is o, are to be included
in Economics, as well as those which have the degree, i.e., which last
for ever.
Hence it is seen that Permanence, or Durability, is not
Necessary to Value; it is only the Accident of Value.
Error of the Doctrine that Labour is the Cause of Value.
10. Having shown that Materiality and Permanence are in no
way necessary to Value; we have now to discover the Cause of
Value.
A doctrine which has obtained great hold over English Economics
is that Labour is the Cause of Value.
Now if we simply refer to the table of Instances given above, it
will be seen at once that there are multitudes of instances of Quanti-
ties which have Value in which there is no Labour at all. This at
once shows that Labour is in no way essential to Value; but, as
Whately said, it is only the Accident of Value.
Nevertheless, this fatal doctrine has obtained such a firm hold
and has had such a baleful influence over English Economics : and
has so especially obstructed the true apprehension of the principles
of Credit, that we must give a more elaborate refutation of it.
The doctrine that Labour is the cause of all Value, which is
entirely peculiar to English Economics, originated, as far as we are
aware, with Locke. As this passage is but very little known, we
shall make room for it, though rather long.
After alleging that the foundation of the right of appropriating
portions of the earth and its products, by private persons, originated
in the Labour they bestowed on them, he says 2 —
"Nor is it so strange as, perhaps, it might appear, that the
property of Labour should overbalance the community of Land:
1 Nov. Org. bk. ii. aph. 34. a Essay on Civil Government.
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v.] Value 635
for it is Labour ', indeed, that puts the difference of Value upon every-
thing: and let any one consider what the difference is between an
acre of land planted with tobacco and sugar, sown with wheat and
barley ; and an acre of the same land lying in common, without any
husbandry upon it, and he will find that the improvement of Labour
makes far the greater part of the Value. I think it will be but
a very modest computation to say that of the products of the earth
useful to the life of man, nine-tenths are the effects of Labour : nay,
if we will rightly estimate things, as they come to our use, and cast
up the several expenses about them, what in them is purely owing
to nature, and what to Labour, we shall find that in most of them
ninety-nine hundredths are wholly to be put on the account of
Labour.
"There cannot be a clearer demonstration of anything, than
several nations of the American Indians are aware of this, who are
rich in land, and poor in all the comforts of life: whom nature
having furnished as liberally as any other people with the materials
of plenty, i.e. a fruitful soil, apt to produce in abundance what
might serve for food, raiment, and delight : yet for want of improv-
ing it by Labour, have not one-hundredth part of the conveniences
we enjoy : and a being of a large and fruitful territory there feeds,
lodges, and is worse clad than a day labourer in England.
"To make this a little clearer, let us but trace some of the
ordinary provisions of life through their several progresses, before
they come to our use, and see how much of their Value they
receive from human industry. Bread, wine, and cloth are things
of daily use, and great plenty : yet, notwithstanding, acorns, water,
and leaves for clothing, or skins, must be our bread, drink, or
clothing, did not Labour furnish us with these more useful com-
modities : for whatever bread is more than acorns, wine than water,
and cloth or silk than leaves, skins, or moss, that is wholly owing to
Labour and Industry : the one of these being the food and raiment
which, unassisted, nature furnishes us with: the other provisions
which our industry and pains prepare for us : which, how much they
exceed the other in value, when any one hath computed, he will
then see how much Labour makes for the greater part of the Value
of things we enjoy in this world : and the ground which produces
the materials is scarce to be reckoned on, as any, or at most, a
very small part of it : so little that, even among us, land that is kept
wholly to nature, that hath no improvement of pasturage, tillage,
and planting, is called, as it is indeed, waste : and we shall find the
benefit of it amount to little more than nothing.
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636 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
"An acre of land that bears here twenty bushels of wheat, and
another in America, which with the same husbandry would do the
like, are without doubt of the same natural intrinsic Value : but yet,
the benefit mankind receives from one in a year is worth ^5, and
from the other probably worth a penny, if all the profit an Indian
received from it were to be valued and sold here : at least, I may
truly say, not one thousandth. It is Labour, then, which puts the
greatest part of the value on land, without which it would scarcely
be worth anything : it is to that we owe the greatest part of all its
useful products : for all that the straw, bran, bread of that acre of
wheat is more worth than the product of as good land which lies
waste, is all the effect of Labour; for it is not barely the plough-
man's pains, the reaper's and the thresher's toils, and the baker's
sweat, is to be counted in the bread we eat : the Labour of those
who broke the oxen, who digged and wrought the iron and stones,
who felled and framed the timber employed about the plough, mill,
oven, or any other utensils, which are a vast number, requisite to
this corn, from its being seed to be sown to its being made bread,
must all be charged to the account of Labour, and received as an
effect of that: nature and the earth furnished only the almost
worthless materials as in themselves. It would be a strange
catalogue of things that industry provided and made use of about
every loaf of bread before it came into our use, if we could trace
them : iron, wood, leather, bark, timber, stone, brick, coals, lime,
cloth, dyeing, drugs, pitch, tar, masts, ropes, and the materials made
use of in the ship that brought any of the commodities used by any
of the workmen to any part of the work: all which it would be
impossible, at least too long, to reckon up."
We have given this extract at length, because it is probably the
most elaborate Economical analysis of price of its time : and so far
as we are aware, it is the first assertion that Value is due to human
Labour. The answer to all its elaborate exposition is very simple.
Notwithstanding all the Labour bestowed in obtaining these pro-
ducts from the earth, if there was no Demand for them, they
would not be of any Value. Hence it is the Want, or Desire,
for the products which causes Labour to be bestowed in producing
them, and not the reverse. The doctrine that all Wealth is the
produce of Land and Labour became very common among the
jejune thinkers on Economics in the last century, from their
ignorance of Jurisprudence and practical business.
The Economists restricted the term Wealth to the material
products of the earth which are brought into commerce and
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exchanged. Hence, according to this doctrine, Labour and
Materiality were indispensably associated with Value: but they
were not the Cause of Value; because unless these material
products were exchanged, they had no Value: hence the Econo-
mists made Exchangeability, or Demand, the Cause of
Value.
Adam Smith begins his work by describing Wealth as the
"annual produce of land and labour" : but as he afterwards
enumerates the natural and acquired abilities of the people as
Fixed Capital : and Bank Notes and Bills of Exchange as
Circulating Capital : he is quite self-contradictory : and he after-
wards admits that Exchangeability is the real essence of Value.
Ricardo's work is a treatise on Value : but he begins by restricting
his inquiry to things which are the produce of human labour : thus
excluding about 80 per cent, of things of Value from his inquiry :
and then he says that Labour is the foundation of all Value. But
such a mode of reasoning is evidently futile and inadmissible.
Ricardo was an eminent member of the Stock Exchange. The
Commodities he dealt in, which he bought and sold, were Public
Securities of all sorts. Now if Ricardo held ^100,000 worth of the
British Funds, would he maintain that their value was due to
Labour ?
McCulloch, who is a mere copyist of Ricardo, also, in one place
strenuously maintains that Labour is the Cause of all Value. He
says1 — "Nature is not niggard nor parsimonious. Her rude
products, powers, and capacities, are all offered gratuitously to
man. She neither demands nor receives an equivalent for her
favours. An object which may be appropriated or adapted to our
use without any voluntary labour on our part, may be of the highest
utility, but as it is the free gift of nature, it is quite impossible that
it can have the slightest Value."
Also — "In its natural state, matter is very rarely possessed of
any immediate or direct utility, and is always destitute of Value. It
is only through the labour expended in its appropriation, and in
fitting and preparing it for being used, that matter acquires
Exchangeable Value, and becomes Wealth."
We shall afterwards show the absurd consequences of this
doctrine: and show McCulloch's self-contradictions.
So also Carey, the American Economist, was infected with
this doctrine, and says — "Labour is the sole Cause of all
Value."
1 Introduction to Adam Smith.
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638 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Now it is impossible to stir a step in this subject until this contra-
diction is cleared up: and we determine whether Labour or
Exchangeability, i.e., Demand, is the Cause of Value.
Examination of the Doctrine that Labour is the Cause of
ail Value.
II. We have now to apply the principles of the Baconian Induc-
tion to investigate the Doctrine that Labour is the sole Cause, or
Form, of Value.
We may lay down this Lemma —
If Labour is the Sole Cause of Value y then whatsoever thing Labour
has been bestowed upon must have Value.
For if there be two things which have been produced with equal
amounts of Labour : and the one has Value, and the other not : or
if a thing produced by Labour has Value in one place and not in
others; or at some times and not at others; then there must be
some other Cause of Value besides Labour : which is contrary to
the hypothesis.
We will now examine some of the necessary consequences of the
Doctrine that Labour is the Cause of all Value.
I. Ail Differences or Variations in Value must be due to Differences
or Variations in Labour.
This is Locke's doctrine : but it is contrary to all experience :
because there are many material things upon which no Labour was
ever bestowed, which yet have very great Value : and also very
great differences of Value.
The space of ground upon which a great City like London is
built has enormous Value: but this space of ground is in no
way the product of Labour.
Land near the Bank of England has often been sold at the rate of
^2,000,000 an acre : quite exclusive of any buildings on it : how is
this land the product of Labour ?
As we recede from the centre the Value of land rapidly
diminishes : at the present time the value of land at Charing Cross
is said to be ^600,000 an acre : but in the suburbs of London it is
far less.
Moreover, land in the same locality has very different Values.
A frontage in a main thoroughfare like Cheapside, Fleet
Street, the Strand, Cornhill, Oxford Street, Regent Street, is of
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much greater Value than an equal space of ground in a back
street
How are these differences of Value due to differences of Labour :
when, as we have seen, there never was any Labour at all bestowed
on the land ?
We read that the island of Manhattan, on which the City of New
York is built, was originally purchased from the Indians for the sum
°f £s< What would be its value now ? And yet the land remains
just the same as ever it was. Within the last century immense
cities have sprung up in what was then desert. Melbourne, Sydney,
Adelaide, Chicago, and countless others, stand on ground which
was then absolutely worthless. In each of these the land is now of
enormous Value. Now is its Value due to Labour ?
The title deeds of the land on which the City of Melbourne
now stands are in the British Museum. The purchase money
of the land was 20 pairs of blankets, 30 tomahawks, 100 knives, 50
pairs of scissors, 30 looking glasses, 100 handkerchiefs, 100 pounds
of flour, and 6 shirts. Besides these, there was reserved an
annual rent of 100 pairs of blankets, 100 knives, 100 tomahawks
50 suits of clothing, 50 looking glasses, 50 pairs of scissors, and five
tons of flour. This was the price in 1835 of 500,000 acres of land :
some of which sold at one time for ,£500,000 an acre : and recently
some of it brought £2,000 the square foot
If the augmented Value is due to Labour bestowed upon it, a
diminution in the Value of land must be due to Labour subtracted
from it. But how is this possible?
As the tide of fashion, population, and Wealth flows towards
a locality, the ground rises rapidly in Value: whereas when a
locality is deserted by wealth and population the Value of land
rapidly diminishes. How are these changes in the Value of land
due to variations in Labour : when, as we have seen, these spaces of
ground are not the result of Labour at all ? I know of a shop in a
suburb of London which fifty years ago let for £50 : at the present
day that very same shop lets for £250. How can this change
of Value be due to Labour, when this shop stands exactly the same
as it did fifty years ago ?
The ground in the centre of London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna,
and countless other cities, has enormous Value. There are
numerous other places now desolate and lonely which were once
the sites of great cities.
Memphis, Babylon, Nineveh, were once great cities: when the
chariots and the horsemen were pouring forth in multitudes from
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640 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bit. II.
the hundred-gated Thebes, the land in it must assuredly have
had very great Value. So with numberless other places. Where is
their Value now? Yet the ground remains exactly the same as ever
it was. Is this diminution in Value due to the subtraction of
Labour? If London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna should ever come
to be as Nineveh, Babylon, Memphis, and Thebes are to-day,
where would the Value of the land be on which once they stood ?
When the future Belzoni or Layard comes from New Zealand
to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's from a broken arch of London
Bridge, will the ground near what was once the Royal Exchange
sell for ^70 the square foot ?
When a fair is held near a town, persons pay a good rent for leave
to erect booths and tents on the Common. Thus at these times,
the land acquires Value. At other times they would pay nothing :
and the land would have no Value. Therefore the simple space
of ground has Value at one time, and not at another. How can
the changes in the Value of the land be due to changes in Labour,
when the ground remains exactly as it was ?
McCulloch's doctrine that no natural product has Value until
Labour has been bestowed upon it : and that it is the Labour of
appropriating it which gives it Value: is refuted by the plainest
experience.
Suppose a miner has the good fortune to find a diamond
weighing 400 carats on the surface of the ground, would it have
no Value? And is it the Labour of appropriating it that gives
it its Value?
Again, Diamonds have very different degrees of Value, according
to their purity and freedom from blemishes. How can these
differences of Value be due to differences of Labour, when the
diamonds are not the creation of Labour at all?
Suppose that another person finds a nugget of gold weighing
400 ounces, has it no Value? And is it the Labour of picking
it up which gives it its Value?
The proprietor of a coal mine, or a marble quarry, demands and
receives a price for the coal and the marble as they exist in the
mine, or the quarry, before a human being has touched them, or
even seen them.
The Government founds a new Colony, and takes possession
of the land; it is quite usual to demand a price, or a rent, for
the land, which no person ever touched How is its Value due
to Labour?
In the Midland counties of England there are many oak trees
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which would sell for jQ6o or ^100, as they stand upon the ground.
They were, perhaps, self-sown ; no person, perhaps, ever bestowed
so much Labour upon them as even to sow the acorn from which
they grew. How is the Value of such oak trees due to Labour?
But the very same oak trees in the centre of a forest in an
uninhabited country would have no Value at all. How are these
differences of Value due to Labour?
It is said that in 1810 an oak tree was cut down at Gelenas,
in Monmouthshire, whose bark sold for ^240, and the wood
for ^670 : how was the Value of the bark and the wood due to
Labour ?
Near these oak trees there may, perhaps, be growing other trees
— beeches, elms, ashes— of the same size. It is well known that
these trees do not have the same Value as oaks. How are the
differences of Value of these different trees due to Labour?
It is a common resource of gentlemen who are embarrassed to
sell the timber on their estates. And this timber often realises
very many thousands of pounds. How is the value of this timber
due to Labour?
A large meteoric stone fell in Scania. It was acquired by Baron
Nordenskiold for the sum of ^84, for the national museum.1 How
was the value of this aerolite due to Labour?
There are again cattle, flocks, and herds of all sorts. They
increase and multiply by the agency of nature. How is their Value
due to Labour?
Some time ago a large whale was stranded in the Firth of Forth :
it sold as it lay on the beach for ^70 : no human being touched
it : how was its Value due to Labour?
Mr. Buckland says — "When examining the cast-off skins of the
snakes at the Zoological Gardens, we observed some white-looking
substance in a box.. This is the dejecta of the snakes. It is a
perfectly white substance, looking very like plaster of Paris, and
is composed of very nearly pure uric acid. It is bought by a doctor
(I imagine a chemist) for the high price of nine shillings a pound.1'
Is the value of the excreta of snakes due to human Labour ?
Some years ago, when it was the fashion for European ladies
to pile huge masses of hair, termed chignons, on their heads, in
imitation of their swarthy sisters of Central Africa, it was not
uncommon for a girl's hair to sell for j£$, ^10, ^20, and even
sometimes for ^50. Was the Value of the girl's hair due to
Labour?
1 Nature, June 20, 1889.
2 T
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642 Fundatnental Concepts and Axiotns [Bk. II.
It is stated in a French paper that at Merlans, in the department
of the Lower Pyrenees, there is a regular market for girls' hair,
held every second Friday, which is attended by hundreds of hair-
dressers. Ordinary hair does not go for much — three to twenty
francs a head. But for pure white hair there is an immense
demand; and it sells from £1$ to ^20 an ounce. There is no
market for ordinary grey hair. Now, is the Value of the pure white
hair due to Labour? And is the difference in price between pure
white hair and ordinary hair due to differences in Labour ?
II. If Labour be the Sole Cause of Value, then all things produced
by Equal Quantities of Labour must be of Equal Value.
But this doctrine is contrary to all experience.
If it were true, a diamond and the rubbish it is found in ought to
be of Equal Value : so a pearl and its shell ought to be of Equal
Value. If a lump of gold and a lump of clay were obtained
by equal Quantities of Labour, they ought to be of equal
Value.
If a sportsman were to shoot a pheasant with one barrel, and a
crow with the other, the pheasant and the crow ought to be of equal
Value. Or if a fisherman were to catch a salmon and a dogfish in
the same net, the salmon and the dogfish ought to be of equal
Value.
And similar cases might be multiplied to any extent.
Hence, we have products obtained by exactly the same Quantities
of Labour : some of which have Value, and others not : which
decisively proves that Labour cannot be the Sole Cause of Value.
III. If Labour is the Sole Cause of Value: then the Value must
be Proportional to the Labour.
But this doctrine is contrary to the most manifest experience.
Suppose that a gold digger, by good luck, finds a nugget of gold
lying on the surface of the ground: and another digger finds a
similar nugget at the end of a week's Labour : another finds a similar
nugget at the end of a month's Labour : another finds a similar
nugget at the end of six months' Labour : another finds a similar
nugget at the end of a year's Labour : then according to this doc-
trine, the nugget found by the expenditure of a year's Labour, ought
to be immensely more valuable than the nugget picked up without
Labour : and the other nuggets ought to have Value in proportion to
the Labour they cost. But every one of common sense knows that
such a doctrine is wholly fallacious. All the nuggets would have
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exactly equal Value notwithstanding that they were obtained by
very different Quantities of Labour.
So with diamonds: suppose that a miner by good luck found
a magnificent diamond directly he began to work : and suppose that
after lengthened toil he found a very small one: then the small
diamond ought to be many times more valuable than the large
one.
So when different quantities of wheat mingle in the same market,
brought from all different countries of the world: their general
Value is determined solely by the Law of Supply and Demand.
But wheat of a superior quality bears a higher price than wheat of
an inferior quality : without the slightest reference to its cost of pro-
duction. We saw it stated in a paper that when wheat from Manitoba
was brought into the Liverpool market, it was at once priced 3d. per
hundred pounds higher than the best Californian wheat. This was
due simply to its superior quality : and had nothing to do with cost
of production.
And numerous other cases of a similar nature might be cited.
IV. If Labour be the Sole Cause of Value, a thing produced by
Labour must Alwaj/8 have Value, and the Same Value.
But this is notoriously contrary to experience.
As the author of the Eryxias showed that the same thing may
have Value in one place and not in another : and at one time and
not at another.
A bag of sovereigns has great Value in London : but take them
among the Eskimos, and where would their Value be ?
A professor of Greek, Latin, or Mathematics, may find his
acquirements of great Value in the Universities where there are
many students demanding instruction: but of what Value would
they be among the Patagonians ?
A great Lawyer finds his eloquence, his knowledge, and his skill
of great value in the Royal Courts of Justice, but of what Value
would they be among the Hottentots? Even in London itself a
man may have the most splendid acquirements, but if no one
employ him, where is their Value ? If a man had all the medical
skill and knowledge in the world from Hippocrates and Galen
to Copland, and no one was ill, where would the Value of it be to
him ? If an author were to publish the most learned and laborious
works in the world, and no one would buy them, where would
their Value be to him ?
To say that Labour is the sole Cause of Value, is to say that an
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644 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
isolated thing can have Value; whereas Value is always relative, and
can only arise in society.
If a man were cast on a desert island, and had twenty hogs-
heads full of sovereigns, of what possible Value could they be
to him?.
If any one were to set up a manufactory of watches, or grow fields
of corn in the centre of Australia, where there is no demand for
watches or for corn, where would their Value be ?
Moreover, if Labour be the sole cause of Value, if a thing is once
produced by Labour, its value can never vary, which is Ricardo's
express doctrine. But this is contrary to all experience. Because
after things have been produced, and all Labour upon them has
been ended, they constantly vary in their Value from day to day,
from month to month, and from year to year.
Thus pictures by one master constantly rise in Value, and pictures
by another master fall in Value, long after the hand which has pro-
duced them lies cold in the grave. The pictures themselves remain
exactly the same ; it is the Taste, ue. the Demand of the public,
which varies.
Ricardo maintains that the same Labour in manufactures always
produces the same Value.
In the reign of George III. there was a very widespread fashion
to wear steel shoe-buckles ; this manufacture employed a large
number of persons. All of a sudden these steel buckles went out of
fashion, the demand totally ceased, and the people employed in
making them were thrown into the direst distress. But according
to Ricardo, the buckles were of the same Value, when there was a
demand for them, and when there was none 1 According to
Ricardo, the way to alleviate the distress of the people was for them
to go on manufacturing shoe-buckles for which there was no
demand.
Some years ago the fashion of ladies wearing straw bonnets
suddenly went out, and the manufacturers of them at Luton, Dun-
stable, &c, were thrown into the direst distress. But according to
Ricardo, the straw bonnets were exactly of the same Value, whether
there was a demand for them or not.
According to Ricardo, if the warehouses of Manchester were
groaning with goods, the produce of Labour, they would be exactly
of the same Value, whether there was a demand for them or not
We doubt whether the manufacturers of Manchester would acquiesce
in this doctrine.
Now with respect to the second Order of Economic Quantities,
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namely, Immaterial Property, which includes all kinds of Labour,
one simple question will suffice —
If Labour is the Sole Cause of Value, what is the Cause of
the Value of Labour ?
Labourers of all kinds know only too feelingly the bitter mockery
of the doctrine that Labour is the Cause of Value, when often and
often it happens that thousands and thousands of them are only too
willing to sell their Labour, when there is no one to buy it. But,
according to Ricardo, their Labour is of exactly the same Value to
them, whether there is any demand for it or not.
With respect to the third order of Economic Quantities, namely,
Incorporeal Quantities, or Abstract Rights, there are some kinds
which are, no doubt, associated with Labour, such as Copyrights,
Patents, and the Goodwill of a business.
But the same remark applies to them as to material objects,
with which Labour is associated, that Labour cannot be the Cause
of their Value.
If a person bestows an enormous amount of Labour in preparing
and publishing a work, the Law, of course, may give him the Copy-
right, but if no one will buy the work, where is its Value ?
So also with Patents ; an inventor may bestow enormous Labour
in perfecting the machine, but if no one will buy the machines,
where is the Value of the Patent ?
Besides, though persons may bestow Labour on the works or
machines, it is the Law alone which creates the Copyright or the
Patent; and where is the Labour in creating a Copyright or a
Patent?
No persons know more feelingly than authors and inventors that
Labour is in no way necessarily the Cause of Value.
But there are vast masses of Incorporeal Property which have
Value, which are not associated with Labour at all
Thus a person who held a large amount of the Funds would be a
wealthy man: the Funds have Value. But where is the Labour
bestowed on them ?
Mill himself allows that a promise to pay by a solvent banker or
merchant is of exactly the same Value as the gold itself; which of
course it is, because the gold is the Value of the promise. But
how is the Value of the promise, or the Credit, due to Labour?
And the whole mass of circulating Credits or Debts (supposed
sound) are of exactly the same value as an equal quantity of Gold.
How is the Value of this mass of circulating Credits, or Debts,
due to Labour? The quantity of this mass of circulating
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$46 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk/II.
Credits, or Debts, in this country is colossal; it far exceeds any
other single kind of property in the country, except the land.
The Bank of England stamps one piece of paper with a promise
t0 pay £$ '> it stamps another piece of paper with a promise to pay
;£iooo : the Value of one piece of Paper is £$, the Value of the
other piece of paper is ^1000 : how is the difference in the Value
of these two pieces of paper due to differences of Labour ?
Thus we see the utter fallacy of the doctrine that Labour is
necessary to Value : and that all Wealth is the produce of Land,
Labour, and Capital.
Results of the preceding Inquiry.
12. We may now summarise the results of the preceding investi-
gations : these are —
1. That there are vast quantities of property, both Corporeal and
Incorporeal, which have Value, upon which no Labour was ever
bestowed.
2. That Quantities, both Corporeal and Incorporeal, associated
with Labour, may have no Value.
3. That the same quantity of Labour may produce products;
some of which may have Value : and others no Value.
4. That quantities produced by varying quantities of Labour may
have the same Value.
5. That things produced by Labour may have Value in some
places, and not in others : and at some times, and not at others.
6. That things produced by less Labour may have more Value
than things produced by more Labour.
From these indisputable propositions, the result of practical
experience, the undeniable inference is that Labour is not in any
way whatever the Form, or Cause of Value; or even necessary to
Value : and in fact in this great commercial country the enormously
greater amount of Valuable Property is not the result of Labour
at all.
Now by the Laws of Inductive Philosophy, if we could find a
single case of Value which is not the result of Labour : that single
instance would alone be sufficient to overthrow the doctrine that
Labour is the sole Cause of Value. But instead of one instance,
there are multitudes: it is probable that not 20 per cent of
Valuable Quantities have anything to do with Labour.
In short, there never was any doctrine in science, which has received
such a crushing and overwhelming overthrow, as that Labour is the
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Cause of Value : and hence that system of Economics which
founds its ideas of Wealth and Value on Labour, is utterly
fallacious.
The pertinacity with which some writers still persist in maintain-
ing that Labour is the Cause of all Value, contrary to the evidence
of the most glaring facts, is a strong and striking instance of Bacon's
aphorism1 —
" The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion
(as being either the received opinion, or as being agreeable to itself)
draws all things else to support and agree with it And though
there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on
the other side, yet these it either neglects or despises, or else by
some distinction sets aside and rejects : in order that by this great
and pernicious pre-determination the authority of its former con-
clusions may remain inviolate ....
"But with far more subtlety does this mischief insinuate itself
into philosophy and the sciences: in which the first conclusion
colours and brings into conformity with itself all that come after,
though far sounder and better. Besides, independently of that
delight and vanity which I have described, it is the peculiar and
perpetual error of the human intellect to be more moved and excited
by affirmations than by negatives ; whereas it ought properly to hold
itself indifferently disposed towards both alike. Indeed, in the
establishment of any true axiom, the Negative instance is the more
forcible of the two."
On Utility as the Cause of Value.
13. Seeing then that the doctrine that Labour is the Cause of
Value is untenable, as every Economist of sense now sees, J. B. Say
placed the Origin or Source of Value in Utility : although he has
involved himself in many contradictions.
The doctrine that Utility is the Cause of Value is in some
respects more specious than that Labour is the Cause of Value,
because there are many things, like land, trees, cattle, &c, which
are very useful, and have Value, which are not the result of Labour
at all. But yet it is liable to the same fatal objections as that
labour is the Cause of Value: because it makes Value some
Quality of the thing itself, absolute and inherent: as Say says2 —
" Sans que leur Utility, leur Valeur intrinsfeque, soit plus grande " —
"Sa valeur reelle fondle sur son Utility." Therefore Say makes
1 Nov. Org. bk. i. aph. 46. * Traiti, pp. 58, 59.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
648 % Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. 1 1.
the Utility of any object its Intrinsic Value : and therefore, of
course, its Value cannot vary so long as its Quality remains the
same.
Many of the arguments that show that Labour is not the Cause
of Value, equally show that Utility is not the Cause of Value.
The doctrine that Utility is the Cause of Value is more specious
in this respect : that for a thing to be useful it must be useful to
some Person. But then there is this fatal defect in it, that things
may be very useful, and yet have no Value. When Robinson
Crusoe was in his desert island he had many things that were useful,
but they had no Value, because he could not exchange them away.
As the Economists pointed out, Value is a quality which only arises
in society. Moreover, in Communistic societies, where persons
work in common, and the products are divided among the com-
munity, there may be things of great Utility, but they have no
Value, because there are no exchanges. Value, as J. B. Say himself
says, only arises out of an exchange.
Besides if Utility is the cause of Value, the object must always
have the same Value while its Quality remains the same. But
while the Quality remains the same, the same thing may be useful
in some places and not in others : and at some times and not at
others: and to some persons and not to others. Some persons
smoke, others abhor tobacco: tobacco has Utility for those who
smoke, it has none for those who do not. Some persons drink
wine, others wholly abstain from it. Wine has Utility for the
former, and none for the latter : the wine itself remaining the same.
When persons are ill, drugs have great Utility : when persons are
well, drugs have no Utility, but the drugs themselves remain the
same. A tureen of train oil would be a great delicacy and highly
prized among the Eskimos, but it would probably not have the
same value at the Lord Mayor's dinner. And it would be easy to
multiply instances to any amount of things being useful to some
persons, and not to others : and in some places, and not in others :
and at some times, and not at others : the things themselves remain-
ing exactly the same.
Again, if Utility be the Cause of Value, things ought to be valuable
in exact proportion to their Utility. But this is contrary to the
plainest experience : because, however useful a thing may be, it may
be so abundant as to have no, or at least an extremely small, Value.
A familiar example of this is Water, which is of the very greatest
Utility : but it is so abundant that it has no value : or at least none
except what is paid as water rates. But in times of great scarcity,
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as in a besieged town, water may acquire a very high Value. So
the air we breathe, which is very useful and indispensable to life,
costs nothing, because we can have as much as we please of it.
And this might be developed to a great extent
Again, things of no Utility may have enormous Value : such as
diamonds: and, indeed, instances of this are so numerous, and
have been so often quoted, that it is superfluous to cite them.
To show how utterly futile it is to make Utility the cause or
measure of Value, we may take these examples among countless
others. A horn spoon is quite as useful as a golden spoon. But is
it as valuable 9 A silver spoon is quite as useful as a golden spoon,
but is it as valuable t A linsey wolsey, or serge dress is quite as
useful as one made of Genoa velvet, or of brocaded silk, but is it as
valuable 1
Very slight reflection will show that Utility is so vague an
expression that it cannot be made the basis of Value. But there
are also a great many things which have Value, to which it would
be a great debasement of the word Utility to apply it to them at all.
The depraved tastes and licentious appetites of too large a portion
of mankind confer a Value upon things of the most detestable
nature. It requires the sternest rigour of the law to put down the
sale of obscene pictures and books. While there is a demand for
such things, and persons will buy them, they undoubtedly have
Value, and are Wealth, equally as the most excellent things. But
surely no one would debase the word Utility by applying it to such
masses of abomination. But while this continues no Economist
can refuse to class them as Wealth.
Demand is the Sole Cause of Value.
14. It has now been shown that Materiality and Durability are in
no way necessary to Value : but are only in some cases the accidents
of Value. It has also been shown that Labour and Utility alto-
gether fail to stand the tests of Inductive Logic as being the Cause
of Value. What then remains? In what consists the essence of
Value ? The only thing which ancient writers, Aristotle, the author
of the EryxiaSy the Roman Jurists: and in modern times the
Physiocrates, the Italian Economists, Smith, Condillac, Whately,
and hosts of others have observed — Exchangeability. Each of
the Quantities in the table of Instances may be bought and sold :
or their value may be measured in money : each of them possesses
the attribute of Exchangeability : and that is the sole attribute
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650 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
which is common to all the classes of Quantities : and to each
separate Quantity in each class. Hence, as the ancients unani-
mously held for 850 years, Exchangeability is the sole essence
and principle of Wealth.
Thus, by strictly and reverently following the precepts of the
mighty Master, by rejecting and excluding all accidental and intru-
sive ideas, we have at last obtained an Affirmative issue.
Now what is necessary in order that any quantity may be
Exchangeable ? Evidently that some one else should Demand it
If I offer something for sale, what is necessary that it should be
sold ? Simply that some one else should Desire, or Demand, it. It
is therefore clear that Demand is the sole Cause of Value, or
Exchangeability.
Aristotle said long ago that it is x/""*? or Demand, which binds
society together: the author of the Eryxias over and over again
points out that Demand is the sole Cause which constitutes anything
Wealth : and that anything is Wealth, whatever its nature may be,
so long as it is Wanted and Demanded : and no longer. He
pointed out that the local Money of different states is only Wealth
where it has power of purchase : where it has no power of purchase
it is not Wealth.
It has been shown that the Greek word XPVf"1* which is one of
the most usual words for Wealth, is derived from x/xiofuxi, to want,
or demand: and that xprjfju simply means anything which is
"Wanted and Demanded": and that things are only xprftJiaTa
where they are xPWtHAXJ or wanted and demanded : and that where
they are not xfyrjo-ifia, they are not xp"jfiaTa'
Here it is quite evident that we have got to the Origin, Form, or
Cause, of Value : it is Demand pure and simple. Value is not a
Quality of an object : nor is it the Labour bestowed on obtaining
it : it is an Affection of the Mind. The sole Origin, Form, or
Cause, of Value is Human Desire. When there is a demand for
things they have Value: when the Demand increases (the supply
remaining the same), the Value increases : when the Demand
decreases, the Value decreases: and when Demand altogether
ceases, Value is altogether gone.
Boisguillebert, the morning star of Economics, saw this most
clearly. He says1 — " Consomtnation (Consumption, or Demand) is
the principle of all Wealth. n — "All the revenues, or rather all
the riches of the world, consist in Consommation (Demand):
all the most exquisite fruits of the earth, and the most precious
1 Factum de la France, ch. v. '
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products would be nothing but rubbish, if they were not Consommks
(Demanded)."
The Italian Economists were very clear and consistent in
showing that Human Wants and Desires are the sole Cause of
all Value.
Genovesi clearly points out1 that the words prezzo, stima, valuta,
vafore, are words of relation, and not absolute, and that they are
not applied to Intrinsic Qualities. That though Money is the
approximate measure, the ultimate measure to which not only
things, but their Price is referred, is Man himself. Nothing has
Value where there are no men, and the very things which have a
less Value where men are few, have a very high Value where there
are many people, which is the reason why things and services have
a much higher Value in the Capital than in the provinces.
" Men, however, do not give Value to things and services unless
they want them. Hence our wants are the first source of the Value
of all things, and Price is the power to satisfy our wants."
Genovesi says that nothing has Value except in relation to these
wants and demands. He shows how prices are always determined
by Supply and Demand, and he says, "Value is the child of
Demand."
So Beccaria says,2 "Value is a Substance which measures the
Estimation in which men hold things."
Verri shows3 that it is the wants of men which give rise to
commerce, and as their wants increase so does commerce increase.
Nations which increase their wants increase their power and their
happiness. Desire, or Demand, incites men to commerce. Com-
merce increases Demand and abundance. Desire for the mer-
chandise sought, and abundance to give in exchange for it; and as
a nation progresses from the few and simple wants of the savage
state to new wants and necessities, it must proportionately increase
its annual production, so that it may have enough beyond its annual
consumption to purchase foreign goods.
They then require something to ascertain the equality between
what they give and what they receive. "Value is a word which
denotes the Estimation which men make of a thing." Verri also
shows that all variations in Price proceed from variations in Supply
and Demand.
The Economists made all Value proceed from Demand; they
1 Lezioni di Economia Civile^ part ii. ch. i.
8 Del disordine e di remedj ddU monete nello stato di Milano.
8 Mtditazioni sulla Economia Politico.
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652 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
showed that things which remain without Consommation (Demand)
are without Value.
Condillac is very clear and explicit on this point1 He begins by
investigating the foundation of the Value of things, and shows that
it originates entirely from the wants and desires of men. Things
which satisfy some want have utility, and this Want, or Estimation,
is called Value.
"As people feel new wants they learn to make use of things
which they did not before ; they give therefore Value at one time to
things to which at other times they did not."
Hence all Value resides in the Mind, and he says, " This Esteem
is what is called Value," and he shows that all variations in value
proceed from variations in Supply and Demand.
We have now shown that all ideas of Labour, or Utility, as the
Cause of Value, are erroneous, and must he rejected, and that
Demand is the Sole Cause of Value.
Self-contradiction of those writers to whom is chiefly due the doctrine
that Labour is the Cause of Value.
15. Even those writers to whom the doctrine that Labour is the
Cause of Value is chiefly due, have flatly contradicted themselves.
We have already pointed out the fallacy of Locke's doctrine. Smith,
who at the beginning of his work fills the minds of his readers
with the notion that Labour is the Cause of Value, and that all
Wealth is the product of Land and Labour, says2 that the vine " is
more affected by the difference of soils than any other fruit tree (?).
From some it derives a flavour which no culture or management
can equal, it is supposed, on any other. This flavour, real or
imaginary, is sometimes peculiar to the produce of a few vineyards :
sometimes it extends through the greater part of a large province.
The whole quantity of such wine that is brought to market falls
short of the effectual demand, or the demand of those who would
be willing to pay the whole rent, profit, and wages necessary for
preparing and bringing it thither according to the ordinary rate
at which they are paid on common vineyards. The whole quantity
therefore can be disposed of to those who are willing to pay
more, which necessarily raises the price above that of common wine.
The difference is greater or less, according as the fashionableness or
scarcity render the competition of the buyers more or less eager.
1 Le Commerce ct U Gouvernetnent, ch. i.
1 Wealth of Nations, bk. i. cb. ii.
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Whatever it be, the greater part of it goes to the rent of the land-
lord. For though such vineyards are in general more carefully culti-
vated than most others^ the high price of the wine seems to be not so
much the Effect as the Cause of the careful cultivation?
The same cause which influences the quality of the wine is true
of all other fruits.
Now this last sentence of Smith's is entirely antagonistic to the
part of the work in which it occurs. Here he sees and acknow-
ledges that it is Value which is the Inducement to Labour.
So also Ricardo, in combatting Malthus's Theory of Rent, says l :
" It is the rise in the Market Price of Corn which alone encourages
production : for it may be laid down as a principle uniformly true,
that the only great encouragement to the increased production of a
commodity is its Market Value exceeding its Natural or Necessary
Value."
So McCulloch, who is the abject bond slave of Ricardo, follows
him in his gyrations. He says 2 — " Demand may therefore be con-
sidered as the ultimate Source and Origin of both Exchange-
able and Real Value: for the desire of individuals to possess
themselves of articles, or rather the Demand for them originating
in that Desire, is the sole Cause of their being produced or appro-
priated. v
Thus it is clearly seen that Smith, Ricardo, and McCulloch, who
are the chief writers who have introduced that canker and plague-
spot of English Economics that Labour is the Cause of Value, and
that all Wealth is the product of Land, Labour, and Capital have
most manifestly contradicted themselves, and have acknowledged
that Demand is the sole Cause of Value: and that it is not
Labour which is the cause of Value, but Value or Demand which
is the Inducement to Labour.
We now, then, see that the true doctrine in Economics is that it
is Value or Demand which is the Inducement to Labour. As the
tribunes of the Commons said long ago 8 —
"Eo impendi Laborem ac periculum . . . magna praemia pro-
ponantur."
" Labour and danger are encountered . . . because great rewards
are offered."
So says Hume — "Our passions" (i.e. Desires and Demands) "are
the only Causes of Labour."
Condillac says — "A thing has not Value because it has cost
1 Principles of Political Economy. * Principles of Political Economy.
* Livy, bk. iv. ch. 35.
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654 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
much, as people suppose: but money is spent in producing it,
because it has Value."
So Whately says — " In this as in so many other points in Political
Economy, men are prone to confound Cause and Effect. It is not
that pearls fetch a high price because men have dived for them : but,
on the contrary, men dive for them because they fetch a high price. n
So the famous Spanish Jesuit, Balthasar Gracian, says1 — "Demand
is the measure of Value."
Demand confers Value on Things upon which no Labour was
ever bestowed.
l6. Labour itself has no Value unless there is a Demand for it :
and the products of Labour have no Value unless there is a
Demand for them. The Value of land arises solely from the
Demand of men for its products. And as this Demand by the
very physical constitution of men is permanent, the land is the
source from which an annual revenue springs.
But the Demand of men for products of the Mind is equally
permanent : hence each of the great professions, Law, Medicine,
Surgery, Engineering, also Art and Literature, and others are great
Estates, like the Land, each deriving its Value from one great
common principle — the Wants and Demands of mankind for their
products, and their willingness to pay for them ; and as it is this
Desire, or Demand, which calls them into existence and confers
Value on them : so, a cessation of this Desire and the cessation of
the willingness to pay for the products, would immediately annihilate
their Value.
And as we have seen that however much Labour has been be-
stowed on a thing, it has no Value unless it is wanted and Demanded :
so Demand confers Value on a thing, and constitutes it Wealth,
although no labour was ever bestowed upon it.
Thus it is the Demand for the ground upon which a city is
built that confers enormous Value on the ground, though no
Labour was ever bestowed on it : and it is the greater Demand
which gives very different Values to spaces of ground in the same
locality.
It is Human Desire and Demand which alone constitutes the
fruits of the earth, as well as cattle, and herds, and flocks: as
also the various timber trees, oaks, beeches, elms, teak, mahogany,
fir: Wealth.
1 Ordculo Manual, § 229.
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V.] Value 655
It is Demand which discriminates between the diamond and the
rubbish it is found in : and between the pearl and its shell.
So a recent lively writer, describing the splendour of the houses
in some of the remote country districts of Spain, says — "Houses and
splendid furniture in such places are nearly Valueless, because
there is no one to hire the former or to buy the latter."
So, as we have already seen, Senior, speaking of Personal Qualities
as Wealth, says — "They may be rendered Valueless by any change
in the custom of the country which shall destroy the Demand for
his services."
This long investigation is not merely necessary to clear up the
difficulties and perplexities into which ill-informed writers have
thrown the theory of Credit : but it is of even far more conse-
quence, as it strikes at the root of all the theories of the Socialists,
who maintain that all Value is derived from Labour, which they
expressly ground on the doctrines of Adam Smith and Ricardo, and
upon which is based the whole of that chaos of incomprehensible
jargon, Carl Marx's Capital.
Credits or Debts have Value because they will be paid in Money.
17. The importance and the bearing of this investigation on
our present subject is obvious. For it is the fatal doctrine that
Labour is the Cause of all Value : and that all Wealth is composed
of the materials of the globe and the product of Land, Labour, and
Capital, that is at the root of all the difficulty to apprehend the
subject of Credit.
If it be laid down that Labour is necessary to all Value, how
could the Notes of the Bank of England or any other Bank have
Value ? Or how could the Bills of a solvent merchant have Value ?
Everyone knows that a Credit in a Bank or a Bank Note has
Value, because the Bank will pay it in gold: a Bill on a solvent
merchant has Value, because he will pay it in gold when it becomes
due. And the gold with which the banker or merchant pays his
Notes or Bills is their Value.
So Mill, who is a devotee of Ricardo, says] — "An order or a
Note of Hand, or Bill payable at sight, for an ounce of gold, while
the Credit of the giver is unimpaired, is worth neither more nor less
than the gold itself."
So Smith, Say, and Mill all class Bank Notes as under the head
of Circulating Capital.
\ Principles of Political Economy \ bk. iiit ch* xii.
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656 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Smith himself acknowledges that if Money were not Exchange-
able it would have no Value : as the author of the Eryxias showed.
We have already frequently shown that all Jurists class Rights of
Action, whether written or unwritten, as Goods: Chattels: Com.
modities : Merchandise : which can be bought and sold like any
materials, chattels, or like Money itself.
And this species of Goods, Chattels, Commodities, Merchandise,
has Value for exactly the same reason that any other merchandise
or Money has Value: because it is Exchangeable. Money has
Value only because it is exchangeable for products and services:
and Credits or Debts have Value because they are exchangeable
for Money.
Thus we see that so long as ideas of Value are mixed up and
founded on Labour, the subject is plunged into inextricable diffi-
culties and contradictions. But as soon as we adopt Exchange-
ability as test of Value, and the sole essence and principle of
Wealth, as the ancients unanimously did for 850 years, and
modern Economists are at last coming to do, all difficulties and
obscurities are cleared up and dispersed like a fog before the
morning sun.
On the Error of the Expression Intrinsic Value.
18. We have now to say something about an expression which
has been the cause of enormous confusion in Economics : which has
been one of the chief stumbling-blocks in the apprehension of the
subject of Credit, and which must be cleared away.
All ancient writers, as well as modern Economists until Adam
Smith's deplorable confusion on the subject, clearly understood
that the Value of anything is some other thing External to
itself: and there is not to be found in any of them the slightest
trace of any such confusion of ideas as the expression Intrinsic
Value.
It is not easy to determine when the unfortunate expression
Intrinsic Value came into use. But it seems to have arisen in this
way : when unreflecting persons thought about Value they thought
of the Quality of the thing which made it desirable: and they
called that its Value. They therefore gradually began to speak of
Intrinsic Value.
So long ago as 1696 an able writer, Barbon, pointed out the
confusion which had arisen from mistaking the Absolute Qualities
of an object for the quantity of things it would exchange for.
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He says:1 "There is nothing which troubles this controversy more
than for want of distinguishing between Virtue and Value.
•'Value is only the Price of things: and that can never be
certain: because it must be there at all times and in all places
of the same value : therefore nothing can have an Intrinsic Value.
"But things have an intrinsic Virtue in themselves, which in
all things have the same Virtue : the loadstone to attract iron : and
the several Qualities that belong to herbs and drugs : some
purgative, some diuretical, &c. But these, though they have great
Virtue, may be of small Value, or no Price, according to the
place where they are plenty or scarce: as the red nettle, though
it be of excellent Virtue to stop bleeding, yet it is a weed of
no Value from its plenty. And so are spices and drugs in their
native soil of no Value, but as common shrubs and weeds: but
with us of great Value : and yet in both places of the same excellent
Intrinsic Virtue
"For these have no Value in themselves: it is opinion and
fashion brings them into use and gives them a Value."
Barbon thus entirely refutes by anticipation the doctrine that
Utility is the cause of Value, which has become rather common
in the present day: and puts his finger on the phrase which has
caused so much confusion in current Economics — Intrinsic Value —
which is to confound an Intrinsic Quality with an External
Relation.
The following passage from Senior shows how easily even able
men are beguiled into the error. He says2 — "We have already
stated that we use the word Value in its popular (?) acceptation,
as signifying that Quality in anything which fits it to be given
and received in exchange : or, in other words, to be lent or sold,
hired or purchased.
"So defined Value denotes a Relation reciprocally existing
between two objects. "
Now the Quality of a melon which fits it to be sold is its
agreeable flavour: its flavour therefore, according to Senior, is its
Value (!) : and so defined, he says it means that it costs 5s. ! That
is, he defines the Quality of the melon to be its Price !
This is exactly the confusion which the Economists so carefully
provided against. The Quality which makes a thing desirable is its
Value in use, or its Utility : and the Economists repeatedly
explained that Economics has nothing to do with Value in
1 A Discourse concerning coining the New Money lighter, p. 6.
1 Political Economy, p. 13.
2 U
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658 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
use, or Utility: but only with Value in exchange, or Market
Price.
Smith, however, is chiefly responsible for the confusion on the
subject in modern times. He begins by defining the Value of a
thing to be any other Quantity it can purchase — to be something
external to itself: and, therefore, that its Value increases or
decreases, according as it can purchase more or less of that external
thing.
He then suddenly changes his idea of Value, and defines it to be
the Quantity of Labour expended in obtaining the object itself.
Thus the Quantity of Labour expended in obtaining the object
itself, came to be held to be its Value : and then Value came to be
called Intrinsic.
This unhappy phrase, Intrinsic Value, meets us at every turn
in modern Economics: and yet the slightest reflection will show
that to define Value to be something external to a Quantity, and
then to be constantly speaking of Intrinsic Value, are inconsistent
and self-contradictory ideas.
Thus over and over again it is said that Money has Intrinsic
Value: but that a Bank. Note, or a Bill of Exchange, are only
representatives of Value.
Money, no doubt, is the produce of Labour ; but Smith himself
says that if Money would exchange for nothing it would have no
Value; so he admits that Exchangeability is the real essence of
Value.
How, then, can the Value of Money be Intrinsic? How can
anything have Intrinsic Value unless it has the thing it will exchange
for inside itself ? Money will exchange for anything — lands, houses,
corn, books, wine, jewellery, &c. ; and each of these is a Value
of Money ; but which of these is its Intrinsic Value ?
Money remains exactly the same in itself wherever it may be
placed ; a hogshead full of sovereigns has immense Value in the
middle of London, but if a person had it by itself in a deserted ship
in the middle of the Atlantic, or in a barren island, where would its
Value be ? Yet if it has Intrinsic Value in one place it must have it
equally in any other place.
A Bank Note payable on demand is of the Value of Money : and
why is it so? Simply because it is exchangeable for Money.
Hence a Bank Note has Value for exactly the same reason that
Money has ; namely, because it is exchangeable for something ehe.
Credit is the Right to demand Money ; and Money is the Right to
demand products and services. Socrates, in the Eryxias, shows that
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v.] Value 659
it is only when and where that Money can be exchanged that it has
Value; when and where it cannot be exchanged it has no Value.
■So when a Bank Note or a Bill of Exchange can be exchanged, it
has Value ; when it cannot be exchanged it has no Value.
Hence the Value of Money and Credits of all sorts is essentially
of the same nature ; though there may be different degrees of it. A
■Credit, by the unanimous consent of all Jurists, Economists, and
Merchants, is an article of Merchandise, and an exchangeable Com-
modity, just like Money, or any other material Chattel ; and this
whether it exists only in the abstract form of a mere Right, or
whether it be recorded on Paper.
The expression, Intrinsic Value, is so common that persons are
apt to overlook its incongruity of idea. It is, however, a plain
contradiction in terms; and if we use words of a similar import
whose meaning has not been so corrupted in popular usage, its
absurdity will be apparent at once.
Thus, who ever heard of Intrinsic Distance, or of an Intrinsic
Ratio ? The absurdity of these expressions is apparent at once ; but
they are not a whit more absurd than Intrinsic Value. If we speak
of the Intrinsic Value of Money, we may just as well speak of the
Intrinsic Distance of St. Paul's, or the Intrinsic Ratio of five.
To say that Money has Intrinsic Value because it is material and
the produce of Labour; and that a Bank Note, or a Bill of
Exchange, is only the Representative of Value ; is just as absurd as
to say that a wooden yard measure is Intrinsic Distance ; and that
the distance between two points, one yard apart, is only the Repre-
sentative of Distance.
A Standard of Value is Impossible.
19. That unfortunate confusion of ideas between Value being the
Quantity of any other Commodity which any Quantity will purchase,
and the Quantity of Labour embodied as it were in the thing itself,
which is chiefly due to Smith and Ricardo, has not only led to that
mischievous expression, Intrinsic Value, the source of endless
confusion in Economics, but also to the search for something which
the very slightest reflection would have shown to be impossible
in the very nature of things — namely, an Invariable Standard of
Value.
It is as well to explain what those Economists mean who are
searching for an Invariable Standard of Value.
If we had a British yard and any foreign measures of length before
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660 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
us, we could at once perceive the difference between them ; and
if we were told the measurement of any foreign buildings, however
remote in age or country, in foreign measures, we could by a
very simple calculation reduce them to the standard of British
measurement, and compare them with the size of our own
buildings.
Those Economists who want an Invariable Standard of Value
want to discover and fix upon some single commodity by which
they can compare the Value of other things in all ages and
countries.
But the least reflection will show that such a Standard is impos-
sible in the very nature of things.
Money indeed is termed the Measure of Value ; and so it is in
exchanges which are effected at the same time and place. If we
are told that a quarter of corn is worth 40s., and that a sheep
is worth 40s. at a certain time and place ; we should say that they
were then and there of equal value.
But such matters are not the result of simple perception by the
senses, as are the different measures of length and capacity. If a
quantity of gold were placed beside a number of other things, no
human sense could discern what their Value would be. And the
most violent changes in their several Values might take place in the
market, without their being any visible sign of such a thing. Value
is a Mental Affection ; and Values are not perceptible by ocular
inspection, but they must be declared by the communication of
minds.
Moreover, it is not possible to ascertain the different Values of
different Quantities of Gold obtained in different ages and countries.
If a quantity of gold coin minted in the age of Augustus, an equal
quantity minted in the reign of Elizabeth, and an equal quantity
minted in China, were placed side by side, what human sense could
discern the difference in Value between them? And yet, that is
what those Economists require who want an Invariable Standard
of Value. They want something by which they can at once decide
whether Gold is of more Value in a.d. 30; in a.d. 1588; or in a.d.
1 893 ; in Italy, in England, or in China ; without reference to any-
thing else ; just as we can discern the difference between British and
Foreign measures by laying them side by side.
But the only test of Value is an Exchange, and unless we can
effect an Exchange, there can be no Value. How can we exchange
an ounce of gold in the year a.d. 193 with one in the year a.d. 1593,.
or with one in the year a.d. 1893 ?
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v.] Value 66 1
Bailey well says l — " Value is the relation between contemporary
commodities, because such only admit of being exchanged with each
other; and if we compare the Value of a commodity at one time
with its Value at another, it is only a comparison of the relation
in which it stood at these different times to some other commodity.
It is not a comparison of some intrinsic independent quality at one
period, with the same Quality at another period, but a Comparison
of Ratios, or a comparison of the relative Quantities in which com-
modities exchanged for each other at two different epochs. If a
commodity A in the year ioo was worth 2 B, and in 1800 was
worth 4 B, we should say that A had doubled its Value to B. But
this, which is the only comparison we could institute, would not
give us any relation between A in 100 and A in 1800; it would
simply be a comparison between A and B in each of these
years.
" It is impossible for a direct ratio of Value to exist between A in
100 and A in 1800 ; just as it is impossible for the relation of distance
to exist between the sun at the former period and the sun at the
latter period."
The fact is that all this search after the impossible arose from
Smith's unfortunate idea that the Value of a thing is the Quantity
of Labour bestowed on obtaining it; which was also adopted by
Ricardo.
From this idea it followed that if any commodity could always be
obtained with an invariable Quantity of Labour it would be an
Invariable Standard of Value.
Ricardo admitted that there is no commodity which is always
obtained with an invariable Quantity of Labour ; and therefore for
that reason alone he admitted that an Invariable Standard of
Value is unattainable.
An Invariable Standard of Value, however, is not only unattain-
able for the reason given by Ricardo, but it is in itself absolutely
impossible by the very nature of things. Because Value is a
Ratio, and a Single Quantity cannot be the Measure of a
Ratio.
A measure of length or capacity is a single Quantity, and can
measure other single Quantities, such as different lengths, or bodies
of capacity. But Value is a Ratio, or a Relation ; and it is utterly
impossible in the very nature of things that a single Quantity can
measure a Ratio, or a Relation.
It is impossible to say that a : b \ \ x. It is manifestly absurd to
1 On Value, p. 72.
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662 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II,
say that 4 is to 5 as 8, without saying as 8 is to what ; just as it is
absurd to say that a horse gallops at the rate of 20 miles, without
saying in what time.
But there may be a Measure of Value,
20. But though a Standard of Value is impossible by the very
nature of things, there may be a Measure of Value.
^alue being an Affection of the Mind, or the Desire or Demand
of a person to acquire some object ; the Quantity of Money he is
willing to give to acquire it is the Measure of his Desire to obtain
it, and therefore the Measure of his Value for iO
BufCredit is also equally a Measure of Valuejas well as Money.
Neither a merchant nor any one else will give more in Credit, which
he is bound to redeem in Money, to acquire any commodity,
than he would give in Money itself. But if he wants any-
thing, he will give just as much in Credit as he would in Money.
Hence Credit is equally a Measure of Value, or Desire, with
Money.
Hence Money and Credit are the Measure of Value ; and as it is
universally admitted by all Economists that purchases with Credit
affect prices in all respects equally with Money, it follows that the
aggregate of Money and Credit is the Medium in which Prices are
measured, and that the aggregate of Money and Credit constitutes
the Circulating Medium, or Currency.
Value exists only in the Human Mind.
21. Value, then, like Colour, Sound, and Odour, exists only
in the Human Mind. There is neither Colour, nor Sound,
nor Odour in external nature: they exist only in the Human
Mind.
According to the unanimous doctrine of ancient writers and all
foreign Economists, Demand is the sole Origin, Form, or Cause of
Value. It is Demand, or Consumption, and not Labour, which
gives value to a product. It is not the Labour which gives Value
to the product, but the Demand for the product which gives Value
to the Labour.
Hence it is not Labour which is the Cause of Value, but Value
which is the inducement to Labour. It is not the Labour of the
Producer which constitutes a thing Wealth, but the Demand of the
Consumer.
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v.] Value 66 3
LWe conclude, then, that it is not Labour, but Consumption,
Exchange, or Demand, which constitutes a thing Wealth : and we
trace the progress of a nation in wealth, according as their wants and
desires increase and multiply. First, the demand for the sustenance
required by the body gives Value to the material products of the
earth, food, clothing, shelter, fuel., Then, as their tastes become
cultivated and refined, arises the demand for works of literature, art
and science : for painting, for sculpture, for architecture, for the
drama, for music. And those who minister to these wants of the
mind become wealthy, just as those who minister to the wants of the
body do. It is the demand of the public alone which makes these
things Wealth. Hence, in order to be wealthy, a people must be
inspired with strong and various desires, and be willing to work to
gratify those desires// And this shows the great importance, in an
Economical point of view, of national education. Heavy taxes can
alone be borne by an industrious and wealthy people, and [the
multiplication of wants and desires multiplies industry, multiplies
Capital, multiplies incomes, multiplies the numbers of persons able
to bear the burden of taxation, and renders the nation capable
of great achievements, and of taking a leading position in
the councils of the world. JJ
Section III.
On the General Law of Value, or the General Equation
of Eoonomies.
22. The last branch of our inquiry is to discover the General Law
of Value, or the General Equation of Economics. That is, to
discover a Single General Law which governs the Exchangeable
Relations of all Quantities whatever their nature may be, at all
times, and in all places.
The acknowledged principles of Natural Philosophy show that
there can be only One General Law of Value, or a Single General
Equation of Economics.
We have shown that there are three distinct Orders of Economic
Quantities, and we have generalised all the Fundamental Concepts
of Economics so as to grasp all these Quantities.
These three Orders of Quantities can be exchanged in Six
different ways. Our present inquiry is to investigate a Single
General Equation which shall govern all these six species of ex-
changes indifferently.
S
J
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664 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Suppose that we make £ the general symbol of an Economic
Quantity, i.e. of anything whatever which can be bought and sold
or exchanged, or whose Value can be measured in Money, or which
has purchasing power — and representing these various Quantities
under the general symbol jQ, we may say that there are in every
country Quantities of this sort —
^459,621,340
^278,234,500
^826,342,784
&c, &c, &c.
Now we affirm by virtue of the great principle of the Continuity
of Science, and of the great Algebraical doctrine of the Permanence
of Equivalent Forms, that whatever can be proved to be true
Economically of any one of this series of Quantities must be true
of them all.
Now looking at the series of Quantities placed above, who could
tell of what species they are ? Some may be land : some houses :
some corn : some timber : some cattle : some jewellery : some
money: some labour of different sorts: some credit or debts:
some the funds: or other public obligations: some copyrights:
some patents : some shares in commercial companies, &c
Now as we have shewn that Materiality, Permanence, and
Labour are only accidentally associated in some cases with
Economic Quantities, and not with all: and that Exchange-
ability is the only Quality which is common to all Economic
Quantities : it follows that Materiality, Permanence, and Labour
must be excluded from any General Concept of an Economic
Quantity: and Exchangeability retained as its sole general
Quality.
Having thus obtained these Independent Economic Quantities,
the whole purpose and object of the Science is to discover the
Single General Law which governs the variations of their Ex-
changeable Relations.
It is clear that by the principle of the Continuity of Science,
and the analogy of all Physical Sciences, however varied and
complicated the different phenomena of Value may be: there
can, by no possibility, be more than One General Law of
Value: or a single General Equation of Economics: whatever
it may be.
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v.] Value 66$
Fundamental Conditions of the General Equation of
Economics.
23. Now, let A and B be any two Quantities whatever supposed
perfectly general : it is quite clear that their Exchangeable Relations
are contained within the following limits —
00 A = oB
&c. = &c.
2 A = B
A = B
A = 2B
&c. = &c.
o A = co B
The meaning of which is simply this — Let the Exchangeable
Relation between A and B gradually and continuously change from
where the greatest possible Quantity of A will exchange for the
least possible Quantity of B : to where the least possible Quantity
of A will exchange for the greatest possible Quantity of B.
Now the Law of Continuity says that a Quantity cannot pass
from one amount to another by any change of conditions without
passing through all intermediate degrees of magnitude according to
the intermediate conditions.
Hence, we affirm by virtue of the Law of Continuity —
1. That if it can be indubitably proved that Any particular Law
is true at any One point in the range of Prices; that same Law must
be necessarily true at All points throughout the whole range of Prices.
2. That as the symbols A and B are perfectly general, if any Law
whatever can be proved to be true in the Variations of the Exchange-
able Relation of Any Two Quantities whatever, that Law must
necessarily be true in the Exchangeable Relations of All Quantities
whatever.
Thus, by the Lcnv of Continuity we are enabled to affirm that —
If any Law whatever can be proved to be true at any one point in
the range of Prices, between any Two Quantities whatever \ that same
Law must necessarily be true at All points in the range of Prices, and
between all Quantities whatever.
And as a necessary corollary from the preceding, we may affirm
that—
If any Law can be proved Not to be true with regard to the Relation
of Any Two Quantities whatever, that Law cannot be a General Law
of Economics.
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666 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Furthermore, as it is a universally acknowledged principle of
Natural Philosophy that that Law only is the true one which
explains all the phenomena, it may be laid down as an unquestion-
able truth in Economics that —
If two or more Forms of Expression will explain or account for
any phenomena regarding Price, or the change of Price, that Form
of Expression only is to be adopted as the true one which explains
All the phenomena in the Science, and not that particular case, or
class of cases, only.
Now as we have shown in the previous book that the Ricardo-
Mill Theory of Value violates every one of these fundamental prin-
ciples of Natural Philosophy — and as Mill himself says that the
Laws of Economics are to be formed by consciously and deliberately
following the methods adopted in Physical Science— it follows that
the Ricardo-Mill Theory of Value is to be utterly rejected^ and
we have now to investigate the True Law of Value, or the General
Equation of Economics.
I ^Economics is a Physical Science, because it is a pure Science
of Causes and Effects. There being three Orders of Exchangeable
Quantities, and, therefore, Six different kinds of Exchange, the
^/ object of the Science is to determine the Laws of the phenomena
of these exchanges — that is, to determine the laws which govern
the changes in their numerical Relations of Exchange/] Hence
we have a new Order of Variable Quantities ; and the Laws which
govern this new Order of Variable Quantities must be in strict
harmony with the Laws which govern the Relations of Variable
Quantities in general. The same general principles of reasoning
which govern the relations of the stars in their courses must govern
the varying relations of Economic Quantities.
/ The fact is that Astronomy is the physical science which is the
type of Economics. The fundamental problem of Economics is
identically the same as the fundamental problem of Astronomy.
The Astronomer sees a number of Quantities — the heavenly bodies
— moving in all sorts of directions — sometimes advancing, some-
times apparently stationary, sometimes retrograding — and his object
is to discover a Single General Law which accounts for and governs
all these varying relations. So the Economist sees a vast multitude
of Quantities constantly changing their numerical relation to each
other, and his object is to discover a single General Law which
governs all these varying relations. Economics, like Astronomy,
is a pure Science of Ratios.
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v.] Value 667
[Lord Lauderdale's Law of Value^
24. [Now, how is the great General Law of Astronomy deter-
mined? In this way. Let the heavenly bodies at any given
instant be in any position. They then change their positions;
the problem is to discover the Law which governs these changes
of relation.
We must proceed in exactly the same way in Economics.
Let any number of Economic Quantities at any given time have
any given relation to each other. They then change their relations
to each other : then the problem is to discover the single General
Law which accounts for and governs these changes of relation.^]
Lord Lauderdale states the case in this way —
Take any two Quantities, A and B, which may vary with respect
to each other. First let A remain constant while B varies.
Then the ratio of B to A will change from Four Causes.
It would Increase in Value —
1. From a Diminution of Quantity.
2. From an Increase of Demand.
It would Diminish in Value—
1. From an Increase of Quantity.
2. From a Diminution of Demand.
Now, as the Variation of A with respect to B will be governed by
exactly the same Four Causes, it is quite clear that the Variation of
both Quantities will be governed by Eight Independent Causes ;
and if these be connected in the form of an Equation, that will
manifestly be the true General Law of Value, or the true
General Equation of Economics.
And as it is in the form of a fraction containing no less than
Eight Independent Variables, it at once shows the supremely com-
plicated nature of the Science.
Lord Lauderdale has thus the credit of having established the
true General Equation of Economics. This comprehends the whole
science of Pure, or Analytical, Economics : exactly as the great Law
of Newton governs the relations of the heavenly bodies.
This complicated Equation is the full expression of what is
popularly known as the Law of Supply and Demand. All Econo-
mists admit that it is true when the prices of things are very low :
they also admit that it is true when the prices of things are very
high: they therefore admit that it is true at the extremes of prices:
and therefore as it is true at the extremes of prices, the Law
y
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668 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
of Continuity affirms that it is necessarily true at all points in the
range of prices between the extremes : that is, that it is universally
true : and therefore that it is the true General Law of Value : or
the true General Equation of Economics.
Remarks on the General Equation of Economics.
25. The General Equation of Economics is, therefore, a Com-
pound Ratio of a very complicated nature: and to apply it to
particular cases requires a profound knowledge of the circumstances
of the case : but yet it is demonstrably true : and the whole Science
must be constructed, taking that Equation as the basis.
In obtaining this General Equation we have followed the method
invariably used in all Physical Science. We have obtained the
Independent Variables, and connected them by a General Law, or
Formula. This insures Certainty to the Science : but it is on the
last point that the real difficulty arises : namely, in giving Precision,
or Numerical amounts, to the Co-efficients. It is absolutely impos-
sible to say what numerical variations in Supply and Demand
produce definite variations in Value. This has been attempted in
some cases, as in that of corn: but it is manifestly impossible to
obtain exact numerical data : and in fact though the same General
Law is true in all cases, it is perfectly well known that it varies in
every particular case: and that the same absolute variation in Supply
and Demand in various Quantities will produce great differences in
the variations of their numerical Values.
It is this impossibility of giving exact numerical Values to the
co-efficients which makes many persons suppose that it is impossible
to make Economics an Exact science. It is sometimes supposed
that for a science to be an exact one, it is necessary that its Laws
should be capable of exact Quantitative statement. This, however, is
an error which has been specially pointed out by Comte, who well
shows the difference between Certainty and Precision in Science.
To constitute an Exact Science, it is not necessary that its laws
can be ascertained with numerical Precision: but only that the
Reasoning be Exact, or Certain. He says that a dangerous
prejudice has sprung up : that because the Precision of different
Sciences is very unequal, their Certainty is so too. This tends
to discourage the study of the most difficult: Precision and Cer-
tainty are perfectly distinct An absurd proposition may be very
precise : as that the angles of a triangle are equal to three right
angles. On the other hand, a Certain proposition may not be
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.] Value 669
Precise: as that a man will die. Hence though the different
sciences may vary in Precision, that will not affect their
Certainty.
This observation applies most forcibly to Economics. Some
persons are apt to despise it because it does not bring out its
results with the same precision as Mathematics. This, however, is
a grievous mistake. In Economics the Causes of Phenomena can
be ascertained with absolute certainty : this is all that is necessary
to constitute Economics an Exact science. Because, the method
of producing a required result being pointed out with absolute
certainty, it has only to be put into force until the result is
produced.
In considering the General Equation of Economics we see the
application of Bacon's aphorism l — " That which in Theory is the
Cause, in Practice is the Rule."
No other Quantities but Demand and Supply appear on the face
of the Equation: it is therefore certain that no other Causes
influence Value, or changes of Value, except Intensity of Demand
and Limitation of Supply. It is certain that neither Labour nor
Cost of Production have any direct influence on Value: it can only
be by affecting the Demand or the Supply : and that no change of
Labour, nor of Cost of Production, can have any influence on
Value, unless they produce a change in the relation of Supply and
Demand.
By this means we are enabled to create a rigorously Exact
Theory of Economics, and by reverently following the precepts of
the mighty prophet of Inductive Philosophy, and the immortal
creators of the various Inductive Sciences, it is seen that
Economics, as a Moral Science, is fitted to take rank with Dyna-
mics and Optics as a great Positive Inductive Physico-Moral
Science, and it is the only Moral Science capable of being raised to
the rank of an Exact Science.
In interpreting, however, the General Equation of Economics, it
is necessary to make one observation. It is sometimes supposed
that Value is only affected by the actually existing quantity of
produce which is brought into the market. This, however, is not
so. The expected quantity which may be brought into the market
has a most important influence on the Value of the existing quantity.
If there were a failure of the coming crops, that would exert a most
potent influence on the present Value of the existing stock. Or if
prices had been very high, in consequence of a great scarcity of
1 JVov. Org, bk. i. aph. 3.
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670 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
supplies, and the coming crops promised to be very abundant, that
would exercise a most potent influence in diminishing the Value of
the present stock. Hence the word Quantity in the general
equation must denote the Quantity actual or expected.
Similarly, the word Demand must denote the Demand actual or
expected.
WEALTH.
The word Wealth is the basis of the Science of Economics, for
Economics is the Science of things so far as they are Wealth ; and
yet it is somewhat surprising that Economists have never hitherto
come to any agreement as to the meaning of the word Wealth,
which is the very foundation of the Science.
The meaning of the word Wealth is not a matter of vain
logomachy, or curious speculation. On the contrary, it is not
only the basis of a great Science, but there is no word which has so
seriously influenced the history of the world and the welfare of
nations as the meaning given to it at various periods.
Whately says — " It were well if the ambiguities of this word had
done no more than puzzle philosophers. One of them gave birth to
the mercantile system .... It has for centuries done more, and
perhaps for centuries to come will do more, to retard the improve-
ment of Europe than all other causes put together."
J. B. Say says that during the two centuries preceding his time,
fifty years were spent in wars directly originating out of the meaning
given to this word.
Another Economist, Storch, speaking of the mercantile system,
which prevailed so long, says — "It is no exaggeration to say that
there are few political errors which have produced more mischief
than the mercantile system .... It has made each nation regard
the welfare of its neighbours as incompatible with its own ; hence
their reciprocal desire of injuring and impoverishing one another,
and hence that spirit of commercial rivalry which has been the
immediate or remote cause of the greater number of modern wars . . .
In short, where it has been the least injurious, it has retarded the
progress of national prosperity; everywhere it has deluged the
earth with blood, and has depopulated and ruined some of those
countries whose power and opulence it was supposed it would carry
to the highest pitch."
Now, certainly, we may be sure that no wars will ever again be
caused by the meaning of the word Wealth. But for all that, is all
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W.] Wealth 671
danger over? Far from it. On the contrary, we are menaced, if
possible, with a more terrible danger still. Because that dread
spectre of Socialism, which now threatens war and revolution to
every country on the Continent, and whose fatal doctrines are
spreading even in this country, is entirely based, as the Socialists
themselves say, on the doctrines of Wealth put forth by Adam
Smith and Ricardo.
These considerations, which are nothing but the literal truth, show
the gravity and importance of the inquiry which we have now to
undertake, and we hope that we may now clear away this
reproach.
We have now to inquire what is the common property or
principle which constitutes things Wealth.
It is not sufficient to enumerate a number of isolated objects
under a term or definition. As pointed out by Bacon long ago, a
scientific definition essentially requires some Principle, or
Quality, which is common to all the objects which are classed
under it. It is not sufficient to allege that lands, houses, jewellery,
money, cattle, corn, labour and services, Debts, Rights of Action,
the Funds, &c, are Wealth, without clearly defining the Quality, or
Principle, which is common to them all, and which constitutes them
Wealth, i.e., that which constitutes the essence of Wealth. This is
what Whewell calls the colligation of facts.
It is also a fundamental principle of Philosophy that when once
the Quality, or Principle, is settled, which is the basis of the
science, all Quantities whatever, which possess that Quality in
common must be included in the definition, however diverse they
may be in nature and form; whatever other Qualities they may
possess ; and even though they possess no other Quality in common
but that single one.
So Bacon earnestly inculcates, as the foundation of all true
science, a careful collection of all kinds of instances in which the
given nature, or Quality, is found — "But whosoever is acquainted
with Forms (i.e. natures) embraces the unity of nature in substances
the most unlike."1 Also — "The investigation of Forms proceeds
thus : a nature, or quality, being given, we must first of all have
a muster or presentation before the understanding of all known
instances which agree in the same nature, or quality, though in
substances the most unlike. And such collection must be made in
the matter of a history, without speculation."2
This is what Plato designates as the one in the many: i.e.
1 Nov. Org. bk. ii. aph. 3. * Nov. Org. bk. ii. aph. 1 1.
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672 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
the same quality appearing in quantities of the most diverse
forms.
What, then, is the common Property, or Principle, which consti-
tutes things Wealth ?
The meaning of the word Wealth has been the subject of
controversy for centuries, and in considering this important question
it appears, upon the whole, to be the best way to explain the
meaning of the term as used by the Economists who founded
Economics as a Science: and then to consider how far it is
consistent with the scientific principles of framing definitions, and
how far preceding and subsequent writers have differed from it.
Definition of Wealth by the Economists.
The Economists defined Wealth (Richesse) to be the Material
products of the earth, which are brought into Commerce and
Exchanged : and those only.
Thus Baudeau says1 — "Useful and agreeable objects proper
for our enjoyment are called Biens (Goods), because they conduce
to the preservation, the propagation, and the well-being of the
human race.
"But sometimes these Biens (Goods) are not Richesse
(Wealth), because they cannot be exchanged for other goods, or
be used to procure other enjoyments. The products of Nature, or
the works of Art, the most necessary or the most agreeable, cease
to be Wealth (Richesse) when you lose the power of exchanging
them, and of procuring other enjoyments by means of this Exchange.
One hundred thousand feet of the most beautiful oak in the world
would not be Wealth (Richesse) to you in the interior of North
America, where you could not devest yourself of its possession by
means of an Exchange.
" The title of Wealth (Richesse), therefore, supposes two things :
first, useful qualities, which render these objects useful and agree-
able, and fit for enjoyment— which renders them Biens (Goods) —
secondly, the possibility of exchanging them, which enables these
Biens (Goods) to procure you others, wbich constitutes them
Richesse— Wealth.
" The possibility of exchange supposes that there are other goods
for which they can be exchanged"
So Quesnay says2 — "We must distinguish between Biens
1 Introduction a la Philosophic Economique% ch. i. 5.
3 Maximes Giniralts du Gouvernement, Max. 18, note.
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(Goods), which have Value in Use and not Value in Exchange :
and Richesse, or Wealth, which has both Value in Use and
Value in Exchange. For instance, the savages in Louisiana
enjoy many Biens, such as wood, game, the fruits of the earth, &c,
which are not Richesse— Wealth — because they have no Value
in exchange.
"But since some kinds of commerce have been established
between them and the French, the English, the Spaniards, &c,
part of these Biens have acquired a Value in exchange, and have
become Richesse— Wealth."
So Le Trosne says l — " Man is surrounded by wants which are
renewed every day.
" Whatever they are, it is only from the earth that they can draw
the means of satisfying them (?) The physical truth that the earth
is the source of all Biens is so self-evident that no one can doubt
it(?) . . . But it is not sufficient to estimate products by their
useful qualities, we must consider the properties they have of being
exchanged against each other.
" Products acquire, therefore, in a state of society a new quality,
which springs from the communication of men with each other;
this Quality is Value, which makes products become Richesse —
Wealth, and so there is nothing superfluous, because the excess
becomes the means to obtain what one wants.
"Value consists in the Relation of Exchange which exists
between such and such products.
"In a word, the Quality of Richesse supposes not only a
useful property, but also the possibility of exchange, because Value
is nothing but the Relation of Exchange.
" The earth, in truth, only gives products which have the physical
qualities to satisfy our wants : it is Exchange which gives them
Value, a Quality relative and accidental. But as it is the products
themselves which are the sole matters of exchange, it follows that
we may say with truth that it is the earth which produces not only
all Biens, but all Wealth." (?)
Now it is certainly true that man has constant wants. But it is
not true that it is the earth only which supplies the means to satisfy
them. Man has not only physical wants, but has mental wants —
he constantly wants services of different kinds, the services of
advocates, physicians, surgeons, instructors, and many others.
And he pays for them just as he pays for the physical substances
which minister to his physical wants. Consequently it is manifest
1 De VintMt sociaUt ch. i § 1, 2, 3, 4.
2 X
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674 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
that the earth is not the source of all that ministers to the wants
of man.
However, the definition of Wealth which was unanimously
adopted by the Economists, who were a numerous and influential
sect, is perfectly clear. It was the Material products of the earth
which are brought into Commerce and Exchanged, and those
only.
Thus the Economists made Exchangeability the real essence
of Wealth, but restricted it to Exchangeable Material products.
But, as a matter of fact, there are other things which can be
bought and sold, or exchanged, besides material products. Thus
Labour and Services can be bought and sold, and their value can
be measured in money.
So also Abstract Rights, such as Credits or Debts, Bank Notes,
Bills of Exchange, Shares in Commercial Companies, the Funds,
Copyrights, Patents, and mere Rights of many other kinds, can be
bought and sold, and possess the Quality of Exchangeability.
Nevertheless the Economists, though admitting that there is a
Commerce in Labour and Credits or Rights, steadfastly refused to
acknowledge that Labour and Credit are Wealth, because they
alleged that to admit that Labour and Credit are Wealth would
be to maintain that Wealth can be created out of Nothing.
They repeated a multitude of times that man can create
Nothing, and that Nothing can come out of Nothing — ex nihilo
nihil fit.
Now this is direcdy contrary to the fundamental law of Natural
Philosophy which Bacon so distinctly declared, because as they
admitted that Exchangeability is the essence of Wealth, it neces-
sarily follows from that fundamental law that both Labour and
Credit which both possess the quality of Exchangeability must be
admitted to be Wealth; and we must now inquire whether other
Economists, both ancient and modern, have excluded Labour and
Credit from the term Wealth, and restricted it to material products
only.
It is also necessary to see what reply can be given to the dogma
that man can create Nothing, and that ex nihilo nihil fit.
Aristotle's Definition of Wealth.
Ancient writers for 850 years unanimously held that Exchange-
ability, or the capability of being bought and sold, or exchanged,
is the sole essence and principle of Wealth, and that everything
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w.] Wealth 675
whatever which can be bought and sold, or exchanged, is Wealth,
whatever its nature or its form may be.
Thus Aristotle says, Nicomach. Ethics, book v. —
" Xp/jfiaTa 8« kcyofuv iravra ocrwv rj d£ia vofiurfJLari /x€T/^€tTat.,,
" And we call Wealth all Things whose Value can be measured
in Money."
So Ulpian, the eminent Roman jurist, says —
" Ea enim Res est quae emi et venire potest."
"For that is Wealth which can be bought and sold."
All the most eminent modern Economists have come to agree in
this definition.
Thus Mill says1 — "Everything, therefore, forms a part of
Wealth which has a Power of Purchasing."
Here we have a perfectly good General Concept, or Definition,
which contains only one General Idea, and it is, therefore, fitted to
form the basis of a great Science. It is a Concept as wide and
general as the dynamical definition of Force. That single sentence
of Aristotle's is the germ out of which the whole Science of
Economics is to be evolved, just as the huge oak-tree is developed
out of the tiny acorn.
A Quantity means Anything which can be Measured;
hence an Economic Quantity means Anything whatever whose
Value can be Measured in Money, or which can be bought
and sold, or Exchanged.
The sole criterion, then, of anything being Wealth is — can it be
bought and sold? Can it be exchanged separately and indepen-
dently of anything else ? Can its Value be measured in Money ?
This criterion may seem very simple, but, in fact, to apply it
properly, to discern what can, and what cannot, be bought and sold
separately and independently of anything else, or to perceive all
things whose Value can be measured in Money, requires a thorough
knowledge of some of the most abstruse branches of Law and
Commerce.
On the Three Species of Wealth, or of Economic Quantities.
Having, then, adopted Exchangeability, or the capability of
being bought and sold, as the sole essence and principle of Wealth,
we have next to discover how many different orders or Species of
Quantities there are which satisfy this definition.
First there are Material Things of all sorts, such as lands, houses,
1 Preliminary Remarks, p. 5.
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676 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
money, jewellery, corn, cattle, &c, &c, which can be bought and
sold, or whose value can be measured in Money. Everyone now
admits all these things to be Wealth, and, therefore, we need say
nothing more about them here.
There are, however, two other Orders of Quantities of a totally
different nature — one of which may be typified by the term
Labour, and the other by the term Credit — which can be
bought and sold, or whose Value can be measured in Money, and
in modern times there has been a vast amount of controversy as
to whether they are to be admitted as Wealth or not: and it is
these Species of Quantities which we have now to consider.
Ancient Dialogue to show that Labour is Wealth.
We have under Labour quoted copious extracts from an ancient
dialogue termed the Eryxias, in which the writer, adopting Aristotle's
definition of Wealth as Anything whose value can be measured in
money, shows that the Sciences, i.e. Labour, are Wealth; because
persons can gain a living by giving instruction in them, and all
modern Economists admit that Labour is a saleable commodity.
We therefore need not repeat these arguments here.
Demosthenes shows that Personal Credit is Wealth.
But Personal Qualities may be used as Purchasing Power
in another method besides that of Labour.
If a merchant enjoys good " Credit " as it is termed, he may go
into the market and buy goods, not with Money, but by giving his
Promise to pay money at a future time; that is, he creates a
Right of Action against himself. The goods become his property
exactly as if he had paid for them in Money. It is a Sale or an
Exchange. The Right of Action is the price he pays for the goods ;
it is termed a Credit — in French, a Creance — because it is not a
Right to any specific sum of money, but only a Right of Action to
demand a sum of money from the merchant at a future time.
Hence a merchant's Credit is Purchasing Power, exactly as
Money. The merchant's Purchasing Power is his Money and
his Credit. They are both therefore equally Wealth by Mill's
definition. When a merchant purchases goods with his Credit,
instead of with money, his Credit is valued in money ; because
the seller of the goods accepts his Credit as equal in value to
Money ; his Credit is valued in money exactly as his Labour may
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w.] Wealth 6jj
be. Hence by Aristotle's definition of Wealth, which is now
universally accepted, the merchant's Personal Credit is Wealth.
So Demosthenes says l —
c< Svoiv dyaOoiv Sitoiv wkovrov t« kclI wpos owraiTas ttmttctW&u, fxci£6v
Ioti to rrjs irhrretos VTrdpyov jjfiiv."
"There being two kinds of Wealth— Money and General
Credit— M* greater is Credit, and we have it."
So also again 2 —
"ct 8c tovto dyvoeis on, Ilio-ris 'A^op/i^ twv ttcktwv €<m fieyicmi
irpbs yp-qfuxrurphv irdv av dyvorfcreuLS.19
"If you were ignorant of this — that Credit is the greatest
Capital of all towards the acquisition of Wealth you would be utterly
ignorant?
Thus Demosthenes shows that Personal Credit is dyaOd — Wealth,
Property, Goods, and Chattels — and d<}>opfirj, or Capital.
Thus, though Personal Credit, like Labour, can neither be
seen nor handled nor touched, yet it can be bought and sold, or
exchanged, its Value can be measured in Money — it is Purchasing
Power— and therefore it is Wealth.
And as we have seen that Adam Smith declares that a man's
Labour is his most sacred possession, of which no person has the
right to despoil him; so to all Bankers, Merchants, and Traders,
their Credit is their most sacred possession, of which no one has
the right falsely to despoil them.
Hence the Personal Credit of all Bankers, Merchants, and
Traders is an integral and colossal portion of the National
Wealth — just as the industrial faculties of working men of all
kinds are.
So also the Credit of the State, by which it can purchase Money
and other things by; giving persons the Right to demand a series of
future payments from it, is National Wealth.
Modern Economists include Personal Credit under the
term Wealth.
It has been shown that the Economists steadfastly refused to
admit that Personal Credit is Wealth; because they alleged
that to allow that would be to maintain that Wealth can be created
out of nothing.
But contemporary, general, and mercantile writers were entirely
against them on that point
1 Against Leptines% 484, 20. * For Phormion^ 958.
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678 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Thus Daniel de Foe says1: "Credit is so much a tradesman's
blessing that it is the choicest Ware he deals in, and he cannot be
too chary of it when he has it, or buy it too dear when he wants it ;
it is a Stock to his warehouse; it is Current Money in his cash
chest. "
So that keen Metaphysician, Bishop Berkeley, who has many
searching questions on Economics in his Querist asks —
Quest. 35 : " Whether Power to command the industry of
others [i.e. Credit] be not real Wealth?"
So Melon says 2 : "To the calculation of values in Money there
must be added the current Credit of the merchant and his Possible
Credit."
So Dutot says8 — "Since there has been a regular commerce
among men, those who have need of money have made Bills, or
Promises to pay money. The first use of Credit, therefore, is to
represent Money by Paper. The usage is very old : the first want
gave rise to it. It multiplies specie considerably: it supplies it
where it is wanting, and which would never be sufficient without
the Credit, because there is not sufficient Gold and Silver to circu-
late all the products of Nature and Art. So there is in commerce
a much larger amount in Bills than there is in specie in the
possession of the merchants.
"A well-managed Credit amounts to tenfold the funds of a
merchant, and he gains as much by his Credit as if he had ten
times as much Money. This maxim is generally received among
all merchants.
"Credit is, therefore, the greatest Wealth to everyone who
carries on commerce."
So Smith says4— "Trade can be extended as Stock increases:
and the Credit of a frugal and thriving man increases much faster
than his Stock. His trade is extended in proportion to the amount
of both [i.e. his Stock and his Credit], and the sum or amount of
his profits is in proportion to the extent of his trade, and his annual
accumulation in proportion to his profits."
So Junius says—" Private Credit is Wealth."
Franklin says— " Credit is Money."
Smith expressly includes "Natural and acquired abilities" under
the term Fixed Capital. Now Mercantile Character, or Personal
1 The Complete English Tradesman, ch. xvii.
2 Essai Politique sur le Commerce, ch. xxiv.
3 Reflexions sur le Commerce et les Finances^ ch. i. art. 10.
4 Wealth of Nations^ bk. i. ch. 10.
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Credit, evidently comes under the designation of "Natural and
acquired abilities. " Hence Personal Credit is included by Smith
under the term Capital.
No person has more explicitly declared that Personal Credit
is Wealth than Mill.
He says in the preliminary remarks — "Everything, therefore,
forms a part of Wealth which has a Power of Purchasing."
He then says * — " For Credit, though it is not Productive Power,
is Purchasing Power."
He also says2— "The amount of Purchasing Power which a
person can exercise is composed of all the Money in his possession,
or due to him (i.e. the Bank Notes, Bills, and Credits he has), and
of all his Credit."
" Credit, in short, has exactly the same Purchasing Power
with Money."
And many other passages to the same effect
Now, if Mill lays down as the fundamental definition of Wealth —
"Everything that is Purchasing Power is Wealth." And if he
says — "Credit is Purchasing Power." Then the necessary
inference is that—
"Credit is Wealth."
That is a syllogism in which Mill is safely padlocked, and from
which there is no escape.
Hosts of passages to a similar effect from other writers might
be cited, if necessary: but that would be wholly superfluous:
because an argument is to be judged of by its own intrinsic force,
and not by the number of persons who assert it.
The simple statement of the case is this — ancient writers unani-
mously held, and modern Economists have come at last to agree
with them, that the only true definition of Wealth is — Everything
whose Value can be measured in money—or which can be bought
and sold— Everything which has Purchasing Power. Now,
as Personal Credit can be valued in money, and is Purchasing Power,
it necessarily follows, by the definition, that Personal Credit is
Wealth.
On Abstract Rights as Wealth.
But there is yet another, or a Third order of Quantities, which
can be bought and sold, or exchanged, and whose Value can be
measured in money ; and these are Abstract Rights of various sorts
1 Principles of Political Economy, bk. iii. ch. xi { 3.
* Ibid. bk. iii. ch. xii. § 3.
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680 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. IJ.
—Rights and Rights of Action. But as we have fully dis-
cussed these under Rights, we need not say more about them
here.
Thus for the space of 850 years the ancients unanimously held
that Exchangeability is the sole essence and principle of Wealth;
that everything which can be bought and sold, or exchanged, or
whose Value can be measured in Money, is Wealth. They also
showed that there are three distinct orders of Quantities which
possess the quality of Exchangeability, namely, (1) material things;
(2) Personal Qualities both in the form of Labour and Credit ; and
(3) abstract Rights. And reflection will show that there is nothing
which can be bought and sold, or whose Value can be measured in
money, which is not of one of these three forms — it is either a
material chattel, or a Credit, a service, or an abstract Right
These three orders of Exchangeable or Economic Quantities can
be exchanged in Six different ways ; and these six distinct kinds of
Exchange constitute the Science of Exchanges or Economics or
Commerce in its widest extent, and in all its forms and varieties.
And if any of the great Roman lawyers, with the materials he
had before him, had ever conceived the idea of constructing a
complete scientific exposition of the mechanism of the mighty
system of Commerce, the Science of Economics would have been
1500 years in advance of its present state, and it would have saved
centuries of misery, bad legislation, and bloodshed to the world.
Thus there is not a trace in any ancient writer of the fatuous
doctrine that all Wealth is material, and derived from the materials
of the globe, or the product of land, labour, and capital.
It thus being shown that there are three, and only three, orders of
Exchangeable or Economic Quantities, they are all included under
the term Property (Property).
Wealth in Economics is an Exchangeable Right
It follows from the preceding considerations, that the true defini-
tion of Wealth in Economics is an Exchangeable Right
Now there are Three kinds of Rights, or Property, which can be
bought and sold ; or whose Value can be measured in Money.
I. Corporeal or Material Property or Rights. There may be
the Right or Property in some specific material substance which has
already come into existence : and has come into the actual possession
of the owner. This Species of Property in Roman and English
Law is termed Corporeal Property: because it is the Right to
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W.] Wealth 68 1
certain specific corpus. It is also called Material Property : because
it is the right to certain specific Matter. Hence we term this
Species of Property Corporeal or Material Wealth.
II. Immaterial Property. The Property which a man has
in his own mental and intellectual Qualities : in his own Labour : or
in his capacity to render any sort of service. As Smith says — "The
Property which every man has in his own Labour, as it is the
original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred
and inviolable."
Now a person may sell the Right to demand some Labour or
Service from him. As all these services, though they require some
bodily instrument to give effect to them, are in reality, operations of
the mind, we may call them Immaterial Property: or Imma-
terial Wealth : as J. B. Say, the French Economist, does.
III. Incorporeal Property. There is lastly a third kind of
Property, or Right, wholly separated and severed from any specific
corpus, or matter in possession. It may either be in the possession
of some one else at the present time : and may only come into our
possession at some future time : or it may be even not in existence
at the present time.
Thus we may have the Right, or Property, to demand a sum of
money from some person at some future time. That sum of money
may no doubt be in existence at the present time, but it is not in
our possession : it may not even be in the present possession of the
person bound to pay it. It may pass through any number of hands
before it is paid to us. But yet our Right to demand it at the
proper time is present and existing, and we may sell or transfer that
Right to any one else for Money.
We may also have the Right to something which is not yet even
in existence ; but will only come into existence at a future time.
Thus those who possess lands, cattle, fruit trees, &c, have the
Right, or Property, in their future produce. This produce is not in
existence at the present time — it will only come into existence at a
future time : but the Right, or Property, to it when it does come
into existence is present and existing, and may be bought and sold
like the Right to any material product. This species of property is
called in Roman Law and English Law, Incorporeal Property,
because it is a Right, but separated from any specific corpus. Hence
it is called Incorporeal Wealth.
But all these three different kinds of Rights possess the Quality
of Exchangeability; they can all be equally bought and sold, or
exchanged : the value of each of them can be measured in money :
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682 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
they are all equally merchandise, or articles of commerce. They
are each therefore, Pecuniay Res, Bona, Merx; xPVImTa> *y*fy/«wa,
oTkos, ova-la ayatfa, &c. : goods, chattels, merchandise, vendible
commodities, wealth, in the jurisprudence of all nations.
And as it is the Quality of Exchangeability which alone con-
stitutes anything Wealth, and is the sole Quality which Economics
regards, it follows that all these Three kinds of Rights are equally
Wealth in Economics. And all the fundamental Concepts and
Definitions, and all the Laws of Economics must be enlarged and
generalised, so as to comprehend indifferently the Exchanges of
these three orders of Rights.
Reply to the Dogma of the Economists that Immaterial and
Incorporeal Quantities are not to be admitted to be Wealth.
We have shewn that the Economists steadfastly refused to admit
that Labour and Credit are Wealth : because they alleged that to
term them Wealth, would be to maintain that Wealth can be created
out of Nothing.
But we have also shown that ancient writers unanimously held
that Labour and Credit are Wealth — and that modern writers now
also unanimously hold that Labour and Credit are Wealth — in total
defiance of the dogma that Nothing can come out of Nothing.
Of course the whole discussion turns on the meaning of Wealth.
The Economists persisted in restricting the term to material things
only, and certainly no one thinks of maintaining that material things
can be created of nothing.
But we have shown that it is contrary to the recognised laws of
Natural Philosophy to admit that the essence of Wealth consists in
Exchangeability, and then to restrict it to material Exchangeable
Quantities only. The ancients were infinitely more scientific. As
soon as they recognised that Exchangeability is the essence of
Wealth, with true Philosophy, they included everything whatever
which is Exchangeable under the term Wealth.
Adam Smith burst the bonds of the narrow and unscientific
dogma of the Economists, and recognised three orders of Exchange-
able Quantities as Wealth and Capital, in which he has been
followed by J. B. Say and J. S. Mill, and all modern Economists
of repute.
Nevertheless there are still some people who feel a difficulty on
the subject, and are somewhat startled at the idea that Wealth can
be created out of Nothing. We shall see what a facile answer can
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W.] Wealth 683
be given to the dogma of the Economists by the considerations we
have presented.
The real difficulty which impedes the true apprehension of the
subject is very similar to that which for a long time obstructed the
reception of the Newtonian Theory of Gravitation on the Continent.
It had been long laid down as an incontrovertible dogma, that a
body cannot act where it is not
When, therefore, the Newtonian doctrine of central forces was
published, showing that the motions of the planets may all be
accounted for by certain forces emanating from the sun and them-
selves, the opponents of the system maintained that it violated the
fundamental dogma that a body cannot act where it is not. And
several of the most eminent continental mathematicians, Leibniz,
Huygens, the Bernouillis, and the French mathematicians, who
were all followers of the Cartesian vortices, long refused to receive
the Newtonian Theory of Gravitation on that account.
A similar difficulty is at the root of the unwillingness of the
Economists and some modem writers to admit Labour and Credit
to be Wealth.
Many thousands of years ago a materialistic philosophy sprang
up on the banks of the Ganges. Kapila is said to have been the
author of the Sankhya Philosophy, and to have invented the dogma
that Nothing can come out of Nothings in order to disprove the
existence of a Deity. This Philosophy migrated from the banks of
the Ganges to those of the Ilissus and the Tiber, and is familiar
to us under the names of Leucippus, Anaxagoras, Parmenides,
Epicurus, Lucretius, and scores of others.
The fundamental dogma of Lucretius, the hierophant of the
materialistic philosophy, is that No Thing can come out of Nothing.
" Nullam Rem e Nihilo gigni divinitus unquam." l
" The Deity never yet made Any Thing out of Nothing."
" Nil igitur fieri de Nilo posse fatendumst."2
" // must therefore be allmved that Nothing can be created out of
Nothing."
Moreover, that No Thing can go back into Nothing.
" Hue accedit uti quseque in sua Corpora rursum
Dissolvat Natura, neque ad Nihilum interimat Res." 3
Hence it follows that Nature resolves all things into their own
elements : and does not destroy Things into Nothing."
1 De Rerum Natur&% i. 151. a Ibid. 205. s Ibid, i. 216.
Digitized by VaOOQ IC
684 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
" Nullius exitium patitur Natura videri." x
" Nature does not suffer the annihilation of anything to be seen."
" Immortali sunt Natura prsedita certe
Haud igitur possunt ad Nilum quaeque reverti."2
" They are, therefore^ endowed with an immortal nature. Therefore
things cannot revert into Nothing."
" Haud igitur redit ad Nihilum Res ulla, sed omnes
" Discidio redeunt in corpora materiai." 8
11 Therefore, No Thing can go back into Nothing : but all when
destroyed return into the elements of matter."
" Haud igitur penitus pereunt quaecunque videntur
Quando alid ex alio reficit Natura, nee ullam
Rem gigni patitur, nisi morte adjutum alieni."4
" Therefore visible things do not altogether perish tvhen Nature
remakes one thing out of another, nor does she suffer any Thing to
be produced unless aided by the destruction of another?
And this is the constant refrain of the Lucretian Philosophy :
that No Thing can be created out of Nothing: and that No
Thing can go back into Nothing.
" Nunc age Res quoniam docui non posse creari
De Nihilo, neque item genitas ad Nil revocari.,,6
"Now, come, since that I have taught that Things cannot be
created out of nothing, no more than when once produced can they
be reduced into Nothing."
" At quoniam supera docui Nil posse creari
De Nihilo, neque quod genitumst ad Nil revocari
Esse immortali Primordia corpore debent" 6
"But since I have taught above that Nothing can be created
out of Nothing : and that what is once produced cannot be called
back into Nothing, the elements must be endowed with immortal
bodies?
And this is the very doctrine that physicists maintain to the
present day. Chemists delight to expatiate to their audiences on
the indestructibility of all things. How seeming destruction is
merely the dissolution of atoms under their present combinations :
to re-appear in forms and new combinations in perpetual succession.
The fallacy upon which the Lucretian Philosophy makes ship-
1 De Rerum Naturd, L 224. a Ibid. i. 236. 8 Ibid. i. 248.
4 Ibid. i. 262. 5 De Rer. Nai. i. 265. 8 Ibid. i. 543.
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w.] Wealth 685
wreck, so far as regards Economics, is now evident. Lucretius
throughout assumes that Nulla Res is the same as Nihil.
Lucretius was a sublime poet, but he was not a Jurist. He
had no idea of Res meaning anything but a material object, as
it did in early Latin and Jurisprudence. He had no idea that
the Jurists had extended Res to include both Labour and
Credit. And thus the doctrine that ex nihilo nihil fit falls to
the ground.
On Immaterial Quantities as Res or Wealth.
II. But Economics and Law confound the best settled doctrines
of the sages of Eld.
It is true that many Economists have declared that man can
create nothing, and that all Wealth comes from the earth. But
Smith, Say, Senior, Mill, and all Economists of note now
unanimously class Personal Qualities as Wealth : and Labour as a
vendible Commodity.
All modern Economists of note are now agreed that the ancients
were right in holding Exchangeability to be the sole essence and
principle of Wealth ; that whatever can be bought and sold, or ex-
changed, or whose value can be measured in money, is Wealth.
Twenty-two centuries ago, the author of the Eryxias irrefragably
proved that Knowledge is Wealth.
Knowledge, therefore, by the very- generality of the definition,
and by the consent of every Economist of note, is Wealth. And
where does knowledge come from ? And what is it formed out of?
Does it come from the earth ? And is it formed out of the materials
of the globe? All that we know is that knowledge originates in
the mind. Knowledge is formed in the mind, by great Labour,
very often. But is it formed out of the materials of the mind ?
And if so, what is the Mind composed of? Does it come from the
earth ? And are we to have an atomic theory of the mind and of
Knowledge ? Will some metaphysical Dalton revive the doctrine of
Lucretius and the Stoics, that Knowledge and the Human Mind are
composed of indestructible primordial atoms ?
TToAAa rot &tva, kov&v avdpwtrov Scivotc/dov rcAct.
But this same Knowledge — whence cometh it? What is it?
Whither goeth it ?
We know not — do our readers? Natheless, it is Wealth, and,
therefore, it is within the domain of the Economist. It may be
bought and sold, it may be valued in money, it is the product of
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686 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bjc II
Labour, it may be handed down from age to age, like any material
chattel.
The acquisition of Knowledge is the acquisition of Wealth, and
the loss of Knowledge is the loss, or destruction, of Wealth. And
is the loss or destruction of Knowledge the dissolution of indestruc-
tible primordial atoms ?
Here then we have vast masses of Wealth, and the question is —
where does it come from? And what is it composed of? And
there can be but two answers to the question. Either Knowledge
is composed of indestructible primordial atoms, or it is not. If it
be so, then the formation of Knowledge is not the creation of
Wealth out of Nothing1. But unless we are prepared to admit
that — and who is? — the formation of Knowledge must be the
creation of Wealth out of Nothing', and the loss or destruction of
Knowledge must be the Decreation, the Annihilation, or the
return of Wealth into Nothing.
Every one knows that Trade Secrets are a most valuable form of
Wealth. As one example of this, out of thousands, we may take a
case which was before the Scotch Courts some years ago. In the
17 th century, a person named Anderson discovered a way of making
pills, which soon became very popular. The secret of making these
pills has been handed down from generation to generation, and has
been a constant source of Wealth to the possessors of it Some
years ago the possessor of it became bankrupt, and his creditors
claimed the right of having it given up to them, as part of the
bankrupt's assets. The pills have been analysed in vain, and the
secret of their composition has never been able to be discovered.
Now here is a manifest case of a trade secret — Knowledge— being
Wealth; and where did this Wealth, or Knowledge, come from?
And what is it composed of? Did it come from the earth ? And
is it composed of the materials of the globe ? And yet it has been
handed down as an heirloom from age to age. If the owner of the
secret died without divulging it, there would be a manifest loss of
Wealth, and what would become of it in that case ? Would it be
resolved into undying atoms ?
Now, Knowledge is Wealth— and Knowledge is a Res. And
here we have enormous masses of Res — which are created out of
Nothing— and if lost, may go back into Nothing. This is one
example which entirely overthrows the doctrine of Lucretius and
the Physical Philosophers, that No Thing can be created out
of Nothing, and that No Thing can go back into Nothing.
The doctrines of those Economists who maintain that all Wealth
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W.] Wealth 687
comes from the earth, and is formed out of the materials of the
globe, are also overthrown, and who maintain that man can create
No Thing. For here we have vast masses of Wealth, which do
not come from the earth, and are created by man.
Hence, it is evident that there is another source of Wealth
besides the earth, namely the Human Mind.
On Incorporeal Quantities as Res, or Wealth.
III. But the third Order of Economic Quantities — Abstract
Rights — do not originate in the Earth, nor yet in the Mind.
And here again Lucretius is at fault. For he says that there
is No Thing' besides the Void which is separated from some
corpus.
" Omnis ut est igitur per se Natura duabus.
Consistit Rebus : nam Corpora sunt et Inane." l
" Therefore all Nature as it exists, is constituted of two Things :
for there are Corporeal Things and there is the Void."
" Praeterea nihil est quod possis dicere ab omni
Corpore sejunctum : secretumque esse ab Inane
Quod quasi tertia sit numero Natura reperta." 2
"Besides, there is nothing which you could say is separated from
any Body — and distinct from the Void, which would, as it were, count
as the discovery of third Nature?
" Et facere et fungi sine Corpore Nulla potest Res." 8
"And No Thing can act and function without a Body."
" Ergo praeter Inane et Corpora, tertia per se
Nulla potest Rerum in numero Natura relinqui
Nee quae sub sensus cadat ullo tempore nostros
Nee ratione animi quam quisquam possit apisci."4
Therefore, besides the Void and Bodies no third Nature can be left
to be counted among Things which can either be recognised by the
senses, or which anyone can grasp by the reason of his mind?
From these lines it is clear that Lucretius did not apprehend
the nature of Rights of Action, Debts, Bills of Exchange, and
other kinds of Incorporeal Property, or he would have found it
necessary to modify this part of his Philosophy.
Jurists of all nations unanimously class Incorporeal Quanti-
ties, or Abstract Rights, under the terms Res, Pecunia, Bona,
1 De Rer. Nat. i. 419. a Ibid. i. 430. 3 Ibid. i. 443. * Ibid. i. 445.
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688 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Merx : xprjjiaTa, TT/xry/JuiTa, oTkos, owia dyafla, ovcria dcfxivrjs :
Goods, Chattels, Merchandise, Vendible Commodities, Incorporeal
Things, Incorporeal Wealth.
If Lucretius had shown his poem before he published it, to his
friend Cicero, he would have smiled. He would have taken a Bill
of Exchange out of his desk, and said — " My friend Lucretius, you
say that No Thing1 can exist separate from a Body, nor act nor
function without a Body. Now my son is going to Athens to-morrow
to attend his classes, and as it would not be safe for him to carry
Money with him, I have got from my banker in the forum a Bill
of Exchange on Athens. This Bill of Exchange is a simple Right
of Action — it is a Res — and yet it was created out of Nothing by
my banker at my request. It is what we lawyers call a Res In-
corporalis, which you maintain, cannot exist in the nature of
things. When my son presents this bill to the banker at Athens, he
will give him the sum for which it is payable. Therefore you see
that it acts and functions without a body, and hence, my friend, your
doctrine that there is no third Thing in Nature besides Bodies and
the Void, and that No Thing can act and function without a
Body, requires reconsideration. If you will come to myself or to
Hortensius, and have a little chat with us, we will explain to you
that in our law, Abstract Rights of many different sorts are termed
Res Incorporates : and that these Abstract Rights can be bought
and sold, and transferred from one person to another with the utmost
facility by word of mouth, without any Body. Thus, for example, if
Titius is bound to pay Junius a sum of money, and Junius wishes
to transfer that Debt, or Right, to Lucius, the three parties meet
together. Junius transfers his Right to Lucius by word of mouth,
and Titius agrees by word of mouth to pay Lucius, the Right, or
Res, is as effectually transferred as a piece of money would be by
manual delivery. And in a similar manner this Debt — a Res —
may be transferred any number of times in exchange for goods, and
effect sales just like a piece of money. What then becomes of your
doctrine that there can be no Res without a Body — and that a Res
cannot act and function without a Body ?
" In the case of this Bill which I hold in my hand, there is no
doubt a piece of paper, but you must not think that the piece of
paper is the Res — it is the Right of Action written down on the
paper which is the Res : and this Res equally exists whether it is
written down on paper or not. I had a wondrous dream last night ;
methought that in distant ages, many centuries hence, men will have
acquired such marvellous powers, that they will be able to stretch
Digits
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w.j Wealth 689
wires from the most distant parts of the earth to each other, and by
some magical agency of a nature of which I cannot form the most
vague idea, they will be able to send messages to the most distant
countries as speedily as by a flash of lightning. How this is to be
done is beyond me to conceive — unless peradventure men should
succeed in taming the lightning to their will, and be able to compel
it to do their bidding. Whether this vision will ever come true, is
beyond our poor weak mortal powers to tell ; it lies in the knees of
the Gods. But should such an incredible thing ever come to pass,
men will be able to send Orders for the payment of Money to the
furthest corners of the earth in a single second, just as easily as they
do now by Bills of Exchange.
" In such a case the Res, the Right of Action, will be created out
of Nothing, and when it is paid the Res will be extinguished,
it will be annihilated, it will go back into the Nothing from
whence it came. I seriously advise you, my friend, to take back
that part of your poem, and expunge that part of it, or you will
have all the lawyers in the forum laughing at you."
Now all these Abstract Rights are Wealth — they are Res. They
are expressly termed Res Incorporates in Roman Law; Goods,
Chattels, Incorporeal Chattels, Incorporeal Wealth in English Law.
And what are they created out of? Do they come from the
materials of the globe? And are they formed out of inde-
structible primordial atoms? When a Debt, or Res, is ex-
tinguished and annihilated, is it resolved into indestructible atoms
to reappear in another form ? What then becomes of the doctrine
that No Thing can be created out of Nothing? And that
No Thing can go back into Nothing?
As a matter of fact 99 per cent of the commerce in this country
is carried on by means of these Circulating Debts — Circulating
Res. And these Incorporeal Res have exactly the same effect
on prices, and produce exactly the same effects, as an equal amount
of gold and silver. What then becomes of the doctrine that No
Thing can act and function without a Body?
How is a Debt created? By the mere consent of two Minds.
By the mere fiat of the Human WilL When two persons have
agreed to create a Debt — whence does it come? Is it extracted
from the materials of the globe? No! it is a valuable product,
created out of the Absolute Nothing by the mere fiat of the
Human Will, and when it is extinguished it is a valuable
product Decreated into Nothing, by the mere fiat of the
Human WilL
2 Y
Digiti
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690 Fundamental Concepts and Axioms [Bk. II.
Hence we now see that there is a third source of Wealth, besides
the Earth and the Human Mind — namely, the Human Will
And by far the larger portion of Economic Quantities in this
country are of this order — and merely the creation of the Human
Will
Thus, whereas Lucretius only recognised two species of Res —
namely, Material Things, and the Void — there are in fact two
other species — Knowledge, Labour, and Character, and Abstract
Rights; and as both the last are now recognised as Wealth, all
the supposed paradox of creating Wealth out of Nothing, which
so puzzled the Economists, and still does many at the present day,
vanishes.
Credit in Economics is very much analogous to Gravity in
Dynamics. Gravity is force pure and simple, dissociated from
any material agency, and for some time some even eminent men
felt a difficulty in believing in it for that reason. Now Credit is
Exchangeability pure and simple, dissociated from Labour and
Materiality, and, therefore, some persons even yet feel a difficulty
in believing it to be Wealth. But Credit is Wealth in Economics,
just as Gravity is Force in Dynamics.
We now perceive the advantage of removing all notions of
Labour and Materiality from the definition of Wealth, and adopting
Exchangeability, or Purchasing Power, pure and simple, as the
sole essence and principle of Wealth, and denning Wealth to be
exclusively an Exchangeable Right
We now see the answer to the doctrine of the Economists, that all
Wealth must be formed out of the Materials of the globe, because
No Thing can come out of Nothing.
We say that we are not concerned with Material substances at
all — but only with the Rights to them. Some philosophers deny
the existence of a Deity; other philosophers deny the existence
of matter, but no philosopher will ever have the hardihood to
deny that men can Create, can Sell or Exchange, and can
Annihilate} Rights, and we have now established that Wealth
is nothing but Exchangeable Rights.
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UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. <By Harriet Bbbchbr Stowe,
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